> Has childcare there been recently been deregulated/privatised?
>
> This focus on facilities is a cheap fix, and the one used here in the U.S.
to
> 'sell' centers to parents, when the true test here of a childcare center
is
> does it pay decently and provide fringe benefits, which translates to a
staff
> with low turnover and less tension & exhaustion. But that's way too
expensive
> when you can just slap on a new coat of paint.
Too true. In fact, I've have heard many anecdotes of low pay, poor conditions, understaffing, high staff turnover etc. _combined_with_ poor facilities.
The transformation of the Australian childcare "industry" was not brought about --- as we might expect --- by deregulation, but by a massive increase in government subsidies to parents, implemented by an Labor Party government in 1993. This suddenly made it possible for most working parents to use childcare and therefore also made the sector attractive to investors.
"The use of child care services by Australian families has grown along with the increasing number of women with children in the workforce. Between 1973 and 1992 the proportion of working age women in the Australian workforce increased from 48 per cent to 63 per cent (OECD 1994). In response to the associated growth in the demand for child care, the Department of Human Services and Health increased the number of funded child care places from 46 000 in 1983 to 208 000 in 1993 (Department of Health, Housing, Local Government and Community Services 1993a, p. 69). In 1993, 57 per cent of women with children were working (Department of Human Services and Health 1994b, p. 6) and almost 80 per cent of children from two parent families using long day care, family day care or outside school hours care came from families where the mothers were working (ABS 1993, p. 7).
Recognising the cost to families of child care and its impact on parents ' ability to participate in the workforce (particularly women), the federal government through the Department of Human Services and Health provides two major child care subsidies - Childcare Assistance and the Childcare Cash Rebate1. Expenditure on Childcare Assistance was an estimated $500 million in 1993-94 (Department of Human Services and Health 1994a, p. 184). The Childcare Cash Rebate was expected to benefit 230 000 families and 345 000 children in the six months after its introduction in July 1994 (Department of Human Services and Health 1994b, p. 8). Estimated expenditure on the rebate was $90 million for 1994-95."
"AUSTRALIA'S CHILD CARE SUBSIDIES: A DISTRIBUTIONAL ANALYSIS" Deborah Schofield, Josh Polette and Alexis Hardin, January 1996, National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling http://www.natsem.canberra.edu.au/pubs/dps/dp10/dp10.pdf
[NB: There seems to be a glitch which stops the last part of the paper from downloading.]