The Child-care Rebate Should Be Available To All
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday December 4, 2008
Many questions need to be asked following the collapse of ABC Learning. One relates to the child-care tax rebate and how ABC was able to exploit this; another is why the rebate is available only to long day-care centres.
The child-care crisis is due not so much to a lack of places as to the way child-care choices are funded. The 50 per cent child-care tax rebate is primarily available for long-day care centres, as centres need to be open 48 weeks a year, for a minimum of eight hours a day, to gain "approved" status. As a result, the rebate is not available to families using many community-based, non-profit centres, part-time centres, occasional child care or preschools. Thanks to the rebate, these centres cannot compete. Thus it is the Government, not parents, that influences the type of child-care families use.The Government says it wants employers to offer family-friendly, flexible workplaces, but the effect of the rebate is the opposite. If you require care for the same hours, on the same days, a long-day care centre suits you and you can claim the rebate. But long-day care is unlikely to be suitable if your work is flexible, casual, on-call, contract-based or short-notice, or if you do not require a full day of care.If the rebate was available for all centres, provided they met the Children's Services Regulations, families would be able to choose the type of care that suited their family, lifestyle, work requirements and, most importantly, their child. It would also allow families who occupy a long-day care place, but do not really need it, to move their child into a more appropriate centre, freeing up long-day care places for families who do need them.MaryAnn Beregi President, parent committee, McMahons Point community preschool and occasional child-care centre
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald