- by Marcus Browning
- The Guardian
- Issue #2121
Photo: Family Moments – StockSnap (CC0).
The policies of deregulation and privatisation have exposed all aspects of life to exploitation for profit. Even child care, a crucial part of the lives of so many working people and their children, is used as a cash cow by corporate cowboys.
Both major parties kick child care around as a political football, and both parties are guilty of handing over child care services to the private for-profit sector.
A strong grassroots movement for the provision of quality, affordable childcare had gathered considerable momentum by the 1980s. As a result, community-based and government-funded centres received operational subsidies and parent fee relief on a sliding scale, which allowed access for low-income families.
Publicly run centres were set up with federal funding and funding from local councils. Care was strictly regulated. In 1993 Australia’s first national system for child care was introduced. The landmark Quality Improvement and Accreditation System was formulated through discussions with child care organisations in the states and territories.
It was based on 52 principles and recognised that “good quality care must appreciate the individuality of every child and treat all children equally.” The special needs of children with disabilities, children from non-English speaking backgrounds, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were included.
The principles set four fundamental standards of care: Unsatisfactory, Basic, Good Quality and High Quality. These took into consideration the relationship between staff and parents, staff and children, staff and staff, as well as the programs for the children, nutrition, health and safety, centre management, and staff development.
Quality of care was paramount. Staff-child ratios were set and strictly adhered to, with children under two requiring extra qualified staff.
In 1990 a Federal Labor government began providing funding to the for-profit child care industry by extending fee assistance to parents using private centres.
The owners of these private centres opposed the new system. Coordinator for the NSW Community Child Care Cooperative, Jill Ruchel, voiced her concern at the time: “I think it is very short-sighted [of the private centres]. Frankly I’m a bit worried about what they’re so afraid of – what are they doing in their child care centres that they are so afraid of having people see?”
More and more government funding was diverted into the for-profit sector as government commitments to provide quality, affordable child care were abandoned. Though the high standards still applied in community-based centres, the lack of funding began to bite.
Centres were increasingly forced to make hard budget decisions that avoided affecting the quality of care. This meant such things as reducing the number of places available and increasing fees.
Meanwhile, the private centres increased their fees. Most refused to take children under two years of age because they didn’t want to employ the extra staff required.
In 1996, the Liberal-National Howard government came to office, seized the opportunity that had so thoughtfully been provided by Labor, and immediately ripped into child care services.
In 1997, after less than a year in government, Howard’s hatchet men had left their own trail of destruction, cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from child care funding. The resultant fee increases forced thousands of parents away from the community centres. Centres across Australia began closing.
The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers’ Union (LHMU) representing child care workers, reported they were being contacted each day by workers who had been made redundant or had their hours reduced.
The concerns expressed by the Community Childcare Cooperative were confirmed with revelations about the two biggest private operators. Peppercorn and ABC Learning came under the scrutiny of the 7.30 Report on the national broadcaster.
Together the two for-profit operators ran more than 600 centres with over 50,000 children around Australia in their care each week. When former staff told the 7.30 Report that food was rationed, Peppercorn chief executive Michael Gordon was asked if his company generally cuts the food budgets of centres they take over. He replied, “No, we generally don’t.”
He said it came down to the efficiency of the centre’s cook in using the budget. Gordon views parents and children as profit opportunities: “Over time it will be seen that these corporate structures can actually add and deliver an increased level of value to parents and children.”
Revealingly, Gordon listed his priorities as what he called the “four stakeholders,” in this order: the investor; the parents; the children; the staff.
As the LHMU warned, the first thing private owners do is look at reducing the budget, in particular through the staff – who are already among the lowest paid workers in Australia – with the intention of cutting wages and conditions. Back then, they used the Howard government’s Australian Workplace Agreements (individual contracts).
ABC Learning at the time was worth $500 million and was the corporate sponsor of Brisbane Bullets basketball team. Managing director Eddie Groves made it onto the Business Review Weekly’s list of richest Australians.
Like his counterpart at Peppercorn, Groves had been funded by taxpayers via the government’s unofficial corporate welfare program, but you’d never know that listening to him crow to the Australian Financial Review about the secret of his success in exploiting children and their carers.
“Every barrier that a government or a bank, or somebody put in front of me, I jumped through it; I didn’t care how hard it was, I’d just do it.”
In January 2011, Groves was charged with “aiding an alleged dishonest use of position by fellow ABC Learning director Martin Kemp” in regards to the sale of three childcare centres to ABC Learning by Kemp. In June 2012, Kemp was found not guilty in the Brisbane District Court of charges of breaching his director’s duties.
In January 2013, Groves was declared bankrupt.
