The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard has today announced that the Australian Government has reached an agreement with the receiver of ABC Learning and the lending syndicate to provide certainty for affected parents, their children and employees until at least 31 December 2008.
The Australian Government has committed up to $22m conditional funding to ensure that all ABC Learning child care centres remain open and providing care until 31 December 2008.
Yesterday, ABC Learning Centres Ltd entered into voluntary administration and a receiver was appointed.
The Australian Government’s offer is based on the best current data available from the receivers. The preliminary data from the receivers indicates there are 1040 ABC Learning child care centres, of which around 40 per cent are currently unprofitable.
The $22m represents the possible costs of supporting the continued operation of the unprofitable ABC centres for two months and will allow the receivers to go through in an orderly transition phase.
The Government and ABC's receivers both have the interests of parents, their children and ABC Learning employees front and centre in wishing to offer immediate stability and help ensure continuity of service.
The Government’s Child Care Industry Taskforce has been working closely with ABC's receiver, McGrathNicol, and based on initial advice, an arrangement has been agreed that will support the receiver to ensure continuity of service for families for at least a two month period.
During this two-month period, the receiver will continue to work closely with the Taskforce and undertake a thorough review of the ABC Learning’s operations. By mid December, it is envisaged that the Australian Government will be in a position to make a further announcement about the future of ABC Learning child care centres.
The Australian Government will also fund a proportionate share of the receiver’s costs.
The Government’s priority continues to be to ensure working families reliant on ABC Learning can access child care for their children and ABC Learning employees have some immediate stability.
The Australian Government has set up a dedicated information hotline on 180 2003 to provide basic information to parents and employees about the announcement. Up to date information for parents and employees is also available on the mychild.gov.au website.
Specific questions concerning the management and operation of ABC centres should be directed to the receiver’s hotline on 1800 222 543.