Tuesday, 30 May 2023

Charlton childcare services

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (19:06): (203) My adjournment matter is for the Premier, and the action I seek is for the Premier to deliver on his promise made to the community of Charlton on 8 November 2019 and provide long day care in their brand new centre. Premier, on 8 November 2019 you appeared on Nine News Central Victoria announcing that Charlton would have child care the following year. It is now 2023 and Charlton has a kinder but no child care to allow the workforce that already exists in the town to return to work as teachers, nurses and accountants. Abby Mulquiny was four months pregnant when construction began on the new kinder in Charlton and thought she would be able to go back to work when the baby came. She thought the outlook for her family and new baby was a positive one. Abby is a teacher in the town who is struggling to get her 20 days of teaching and 20 hours of professional development to keep her registration this year because of the lack of available child care. She pays a private nanny – only one day a week because that is all that is available – but that means gorgeous little Dulcie, who is now 18 months old, is missing out on early childhood education and socialisation – incredibly important for any child’s development.

Abby and at least five others like her are qualified to fill the FTE positions at local schools, which are in desperate need of permanent teachers. Instead Charlton’s young people are being taught by inconsistent CRTs who drive from Melbourne for $700 a day because all local avenues have been exhausted so far. Abby is a qualified English and humanities teacher and would love to apply for the FTE positions available. In fact there are other local mums who would love to apply for this position, which has been advertised now for 273 days. It could be filled tomorrow if there was the ability for parents to return to work with adequate child care. We have qualified early childhood educators ready to get to work, we have several operators expressing interest in management, we have the option of in-venue family day care, and yet – nothing. We have families, including teachers, leaving the wonderful community of Charlton for other towns where they can walk into long day care and both parents can work – both parents need to work because the cost of living dictates they have no choice.

Given the Andrews Labor government positions itself to be the Education State, why is Charlton still waiting for access to early childhood education almost two years after the centre was completed and almost four years since the Premier appeared on television making this promise? There is an entire workforce – it does not come down to an issue of housing, it comes down to child care.