This is not a conversation about privileged Stay At Home parents.
The Government wants to crack down on non-working parents who put their kids in childcare so they can go to yoga and drink mojitos at lunch – but they’ve got it so wrong.
Over the weekend, the Government continued to tease the public with elements of their new child care funding package, which they plan to announce in this month’s Budget. But the policy that they have announced forgets the people who actually need child care the most.
Cutting through the hedging and spin, the upshot of the Government’s police so far is this: There will be a single, means-tested rebate that will be paid directly to the child care centre (effectively reducing how much you will have to pay – unless the child care centres take the opportunity to jack the prices up). Plus, there is a new element – a tougher activity test, which will mean that parents will need to work a minimum number of hours before they can receive childcare support.
Not working? No child care payments.
More on child care payments: It’s time to stop paying the child care rebate to anti-vaxxers.
Our instinct is probably to think this is a good thing – the Government is cracking down on yummy mummies who want to put their children in child care so that they can go sit around in paleo cafes wearing Lululemon leisurewear talking with their friends about which ski resort has the best creche.
But that couldn’t be more wrong.
The Minister for Social Services, Scott Morrison explained the reason for this change like this: “The purpose of doing any of this in childcare principally is to help families be in work and stay in work.”
And that’s fine and almost entirely true. Child care payments are not ‘welfare’ – these payments are about equality and reprieve. Having the government subsidise child care is about making sure that women can return to work after having children. Once back in the workforce, women can build savings, including retirement savings. They can continue to rise through the ranks and reach executive levels – improving the experience and the commercial competitiveness of businesses.
More on women in the workplace: This is why reverse sexism is not a thing.
But when Scott Morrison talks about supporting families to ‘be in work and stay in work’, he has missed a very important part of the community – those people who aren’t in work and who want to be.
And this policy is very, very bad for those people.
Make no mistake – it is hard to get a job. People who have a job can forget how hard it is. It takes time to get a job. If you are on Newstart payments, you need to turn up at Centrelink. You need to go to meetings with your job service provider. And you need to write an extraordinary number of job applications in order to keep your payments. Then, if you get a interview, you need to be able to prepare and go.
Finding a job can be a full time job. If you’re struggling to put food on the table and to raise children or you have other caring responsibilities, it is next to impossible.
People who are looking for work or who have a job that desperately need child care. In many ways, they need child care just as much as those in work.
The Government and Scott Morrison have forgotten the people who are trying to get into work. And they will be the biggest losers in this policy.
But there is a second group of people who the Government has forgotten – and that is the children of people who are out of work.
These are vulnerable kids, kids who might be struggling to get a good start. Yes, the Government forgot about children, when it was writing its child care policy.
We know that putting children into quality child care results in better school success, a decreased crime rate, less substance abuse and increased long-term employment. Child care is good for kids and it is good for society. So when the Government cuts these children out of the picture, they are not just letting these kids down, they are letting the country down.
In truth – the Government has forgotten the people who need child care the most: The people who want to work but can’t. The children of people who are unemployed.
They’re the people who need the support of the Government the most – and they’re the people the Minister and the Government have let down.
Do you think people who aren’t working need child care?
Top Comments
Interesting article. Although, I live elsewhere and have to pay over 1,000 USD per month for one child since he has been six weeks old and is now five and have never received child support or help from ex husband and have never been on any welfare program and do not get childcare help as in a reduced rate I just go without for self and pay it. I need to be at work and child needs to be in childcare. I do know many people who are married and others who live together as a couple and other single parents who do qualify for child care help and they complain over the small discounted amount that they still have to pay. Smh! I do not even get money back at tax time nothing.
For the question if people who are not working need childcare? In my opinion childcare priority should go to the working parents first, then the parents who are students, and if open slots then sure why not to non working parents. They may have medical appointments of their own to go to and some people have a lot of medical appointments. They may have job interviews to go to. They may need to take elderly parents or grandparents to their medical appointments.
If a stay at home mom wants to pay out of her own pocket for child care then why not if there is space available. Hopefully, one would use it for reasons that I listed above because If I actually had a day off I would prefer to spend with my child doing something.
The crazy thing that I notice is that the working mothers often do way more with their children then the mothers who are stay at home (people I know) I am raising my child alone and no assistance and it's not easy but I go without for myself. I had my child and there are no guarantees in life (divorced) and he refused to help and courts can't locate him. Therefore, I take responsibility for my own actions and provide for child no matter how difficult it is.
If I was a stay at home mom I would prefer paying a child care center twice a week for my own appointments rather then exchanging with another stay at home mother but that's just me.
Great articles!
I'm scared. I have my own business, however at the moment I'm
Not drawing a wage as profits are down. We are living off my husbands income at the moment but it's a struggle. My son is at preschool 2 days a week. I couldn't afford the full $260/week the two days cost and I also don't have family or friends to help me out. The business is registered in my husbands name so I worry that in the eyes of the government I would be seen as a sahm. My son is the one that will suffer as I will have to put him in front of the TV all day so I can work. I can't offer the education a day care centre provides