Child Care in Australia

Following the collapse of the ABC learning centre’s, I think the government needs to have a good hard look at how child care is provided in this country. Do we really want to go down the route of having these kinds of private franchises taking care of Australia's children? Is having profit driven, McDonalds style services the way we really want to go?

Make no mistake, every time there is a decision to be made on whether to increase the profits of the company or to provide a better standard of service, the profits will come first and the children will come last. Some things should never be ran for profit, childcare would be better left in the hands of properly funded, not for profit community organisations, but with stricter standards on who, and what level of training is required to educate our kids.

If we get child care right, if we provide the services that mums and dads need, then we strengthen our communities, we give people some time back, help with the work/life balance which is so poor in Australia and this comes back to strengthen our economies. Healthy communities make for healthy economies, you can't cut corners on providing services that are the cornerstone of our society, that's simply taxing the future to pay for the present. The free market isn't a substitute for good governance.

Time to fix this ridiculous situation Rudd, what are you going to do about the terrible state of child care in Australia?

Case and point, leave it to the market and the ABC collapse is the kind of mess you get. The free market isn't a subsitute for good governance.