{"id":11906,"date":"2021-06-25T05:54:37","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T05:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=11906"},"modified":"2021-06-25T05:54:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T05:54:37","slug":"labor-to-improve-transparency-in-early-learning-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/06\/25\/labor-to-improve-transparency-in-early-learning-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor to Improve Transparency in Early Learning Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An Albanese Labor Government will improve transparency in the child care sector for Australian families and taxpayers, building on Labor\u2019s Cheaper Child Care for Working Families policy.<br \/>\nThe Commonwealth will spend around $9 billion on the Child Care Subsidy this year, yet there is very little oversight or public reporting of how this taxpayer money is spent.<br \/>\nWhile not-for-profit providers are already required to report to the National Charities Commission, large for-profit providers, particularly those owned by private equity, do not have the same accountability.<br \/>\nPart of the Morrison Government\u2019s failed child care changes in 2018 was the introduction of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/alp.us12.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=942ebc4c1cf8fc522a4f4c50e&amp;id=dc75cf8846&amp;e=a709c12679\">www.childcarefinder.gov.au<\/a>. The website does not provide real-time child care fee and quality data and some providers do not display any fee information at all.<br \/>\nAustralian families need improved transparency around what is driving their fee increases and the ability to easily and accurately compare providers in order to make an informed decision.<br \/>\nThe lack of oversight of the sector has also allowed for the practice of non-educational enrolment inducements, with some for-profit providers offering incentives such as cash or iPads to entice families to enrol at their centres. These marketing gimmicks are being funded by taxpayers and are an inappropriate use of government support.<br \/>\nChild care fees are out of control under the Morrison Government, having soared by 37 per cent since the election of the Coalition. Increased transparency about cost drivers and profits is necessary to stop this trend and put downward pressure on fees.<br \/>\nThat is why an Albanese Labor Government will:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Require large child care providers (more than 25 services as defined by ACECQA) and landlords owning more than 10 child care centres to publicly report their child care revenue and profit results to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/alp.us12.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=942ebc4c1cf8fc522a4f4c50e&amp;id=9176d8610e&amp;e=a709c12679\">www.childcarefinder.gov.au<\/a>;<\/li>\n<li>Mandate that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/alp.us12.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=942ebc4c1cf8fc522a4f4c50e&amp;id=61958edb11&amp;e=a709c12679\">www.childcarefinder.gov.au<\/a>\u00a0includes every Child Care Subsidy approved provider, real-time child care fee data and quality ratings and average year on year fee increases so parents can make an informed choice; and<\/li>\n<li>Ban providers from offering non-educational enrolment inducements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This policy builds on Labor\u2019s Cheaper Child Care for Working Families plan, in particular our commitment for the ACCC to investigate price regulation to ensure all benefit goes into the pockets of families.<br \/>\nLabor\u2019s plan for cheaper child care will deliver an additional $6 billion investment in the sector, which will leave 97 per cent of families in the system better off.<br \/>\nWe want to ensure this additional support flows through to families, which is why we want a stronger focus on transparency.<br \/>\nOnly Labor is committed to genuine, enduring reform of the child care sector that brings costs down for families and keeps them down.<br \/>\nThe Morrison Government\u2019s half-hearted child care policy falls lightyears short of what is required to properly reform the system and includes nothing to keep fees down.<br \/>\nThis Government\u2019s poor attitude towards child care has been on display this week, with members of the Coalition party room labelling it outsourced parenting.<br \/>\nThe difference could not be more stark &#8211; Labor is committed to ensuring every Australian child deserves access to affordable and high quality early learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Albanese Labor Government will improve transparency in the child care sector for Australian families and taxpayers, building on Labor\u2019s Cheaper Child Care for Working Families policy. The Commonwealth will spend around $9 billion on the Child Care Subsidy this year, yet there is very little oversight or public reporting of how this taxpayer money &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/06\/25\/labor-to-improve-transparency-in-early-learning-sector\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Labor to Improve Transparency in Early Learning Sector&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}