E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW ABC MORNING
1006AM TUESDAY
1 JUNE 2009
ISSUES: Arrangements for Early Learning and Care Centres announced in NSW; bullying
DEBORAH CAMERON: Well there are going to be 38 Early Learning and Care Centres opened across the country by next year. Of those 38, 11 [will be] in NSW. Two have already been announced. This morning, Maxine McKew, the Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education and Child Care, has been in Sydney to reveal the detail of the remaining nine centres. Good morning, Minister.
MAXINE MCKEW: Good morning Deb. How are you?
DEBORAH CAMERON: Good, thank you. Tell me, where will these new centres be?
MAXINE MCKEW: I’ve just been at North Ryde Public School this morning with our state counterparts - with Verity Firth and Linda Burney - and we’ve announced the five of these early learning centres will be on public school sites. They’ll be at North Ryde, at Faulconbridge, at Queanbeyan South, at Panania North and Merewether Heights in Newcastle. So, that’s five of those centres on public school sites. Then there will be four more priority early learning centres; at Bondi Junction, at Fairlight, at Killara and in Sydney’s inner west. So, quite a mix there and you’re right Deb to make the point that there are nine centres and then the other two have already been announced - New South Wales’ share, if you like, of those 38 priority centres that we funded in the Budget last year.
DEBORAH CAMERON: What’s the significance of the ones being built on school premises?
MAXINE MCKEW: It’s part of the Labor Party’s long held commitment Deb, to end the double drop off. As much as anything, this is addressing the needs of busy families, you know, who might have a child at school and a younger sibling who needs long day care or preschool. So the collocation of early learning centres - and increasingly I think we’ll refer to child care centres as early learning centres - the collocation, I think, number one is convenient for parents, and that’s terribly important. But in a pedagogical sense, I think it makes a very important link between the importance of the early years - children’s learning to control their own behaviour, learning those important pre-numeracy and pre-literacy skills - so that by the time they get to school, they can start school as happy, confident learners. I’ll just make one other point. I know you’ve been talking about this very disturbing bullying report this morning, and Verity Firth has just been commenting on that in the news. In many ways, if you think back through children’s development, Mum and Dad are probably the first teachers and you want parents who are helping children to control their own behaviour. But increasingly, as you know, parents are leading busy lives. They’re in the workforce and more and more, children are in formal care at an earlier age. So I think you want early learning, and quality early learning that helps children control their own behaviour, arrive at school with social skills, being able to be respectful of others, and resilient. We know that children who can cope with life’s knocks do a lot better, so all of those things really, if you invest in the early years, hopefully you’ll be addressing some of these very disturbing figures.
DEBORAH CAMERON: Demand for these places is always very strong. This announcement today relates to about 450 new child care places in long day care. Is that correct?
MAXINE MCKEW: That’s right.
DEBORAH CAMERON: I imagine that that demand is almost gone already.
MAXINE MCKEW: It depends where you are. The issue of demand and supply is a very tricky one. I’ll tell you what I’ve determined absolutely Deb, and that is where you have what I would call a centre of excellence - and that is, if you like, a long day care facility where a premium is put on effective ratios, on well trained staff - you will find there is a long line right down the street to get a place in one of those centres. Whereas other centres, perhaps in the same locality, don’t put the same emphasis on the importance of effective ratios and trained staff, you find that they can show up vacancies. So what we are saying is yes, along with the rollout, we are increasing supply of child care centres, that’s not the only thing we’re doing. We are absolutely putting a huge emphasis on quality early learning, on training the people who will be in these buildings. It’s not just a question of putting up the buildings, and you will find that there’s great demand for that as more and more parents recognise the importance of the early years.
DEBORAH CAMERON: My guest this morning, Maxine McKew. She’s the Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education and Child Care, and in a way, these issues that you’ve touched on really go to the whole notion of the working family that you made so much of during the campaign. There’s also, of course, great stresses on working families now, with regard to the shifts that parents have to manage at work, and then the commute home. And all of that plays into the way that Sydney is shaped; the absence of public transportation, the double drop off which is still a feature of many, many families’ lives, and just the security of employment. Build some picture of how you envisage a working family will solve all of those problems in the next 12 months, as their rent starts to rise and their income starts to fall.
MAXINE MCKEW: You’re right to suggest there, Deb, that there are multiple stresses on families, and that is true this year. We know this is going to be a very troubled year for many people, looking at work in a slowing economy, but those stresses have been there and our lives are now much more complex, aren’t they? So, I’d have to go back to the structure of what we’ve done here. We are recognising the complexity of modern family life, and saying we’ll try and make things that much easier by collocating early learning centres on the site of school grounds. Now we’re doing that with public schools and providing Commonwealth money to do that, but I would have to say the Catholic system, Catholic education and independent schools are increasingly doing the same things. They recognise the importance of this. So, if you like, across the educational sector we are seeing the incorporation of early learning with primary schooling. So that’s one point. I’d say something else that I think is terribly important. One’s very proud that in what was a tough Budget this year, a very difficult environment in which to frame the Federal Budget, for the very first time, the Labor Government has provided for paid parental leave. This is a huge advance. I remember when I came in as a trainee reporter, back in the dinosaur age, it was only women in the public service who had maternity leave. Well, now this is going to be a universal right. I think that is going to make a difference, so that if there’s a bit of income certainty there for young mums, when they have their first baby – and they will now have access to 18 weeks’ of paid leave, paid by the Commonwealth Government - I think that means that there’ll be a bit less stress. They can stay home a little bit longer with their infants and not feel the pressure to rush back to work. So, I think the combination of these things that we are moving on, and as I say, importantly, when Mum or Dad decides it’s time to go back to work and a very young child, and we do have a lot of very young children and young infants in child care, that they know that they will have the best possible care delivered by trained people.
DEBORAH CAMERON: Thank you very much for your time this morning.
ENDS.