EMBARGO: 4.30 p. m.
j6May 1974
: THE CARE AND EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN
During his speech today in Sydney's marginal Bennelong
electorate, Mr. Whitlam announced the details of the Labor
Government's new child care program.
Mr. Whitlam said that by 1978, half a million Australian
children would have access to both pre school educational
opportunities and child care. Pre school education will
be free for all children. Child care will be subsidised
with parents contributing to the cost according to their
means. Eventually, all children, whether they be at home
or in care, would benefit under the plan.
The goals of this new program are:
to increase the social development and
learning ability of all children, regardless
of income, family or ethnic background;
to provide care for all children who need it,
be it occasional or regular;_
to increase the quality of parents' lives, in
particular, the life of the working mother.
This program would include not only full day care facilities
and educational opportunities. It will also offer emergency
and occasional care, before and after school care, holiday
programs, informal play groups, toddlers' groups and babysitting
pools.
Each community will be involved in the development of facilities
appropriate to their area.
The cost of such a program will be $ 130 m. in a full year.
In contrast, the previous government promised $ 5 million towards
child care in 1972 but neither the Gorton nor the McMahon
Government managed to spend anything. The Whitlam Government
has spent $ 18 million on child care in the last six months.
The Liberal-Country Party says that it really cares for the
children of Australia yet it is prepared to spend in a full
year less than the Whitlam Government has spent in developmental
programs in the last six months.
The Liberal-Country Party agrees that there are over 300,000
children requiring child care and yet it says that it will
reject or reduce this program, not because it isn't adequate
to overcome the needs in a commuunity, but because it would
cost too much. A detailed outline of the child care program
is attached.
For these facilities to be developed in an imaginative and
decentralised manner, the Australian Government will make grants
through the States to Local Government and community organisations.
The Australian Government will provide assistance to the
communities to enable them to work out their needs and administer
the facilities of their choice. Evidence and commonsense
demonstrate that quality care requires the involvement of parents
and the community in this program. The Australian Government
program will involve families and community organisations in the
control of facilities in their areas. Such a scheme will make
possible the full and imaginative use of the present limited
supply of professionally trained people. It will also use those
skilled mothers in the community who might choose to earn a
living caring for children rather than on an assembly line.
Education for the care of children must involve all those people
who are or could be caring for children: first and foremost the
parent, both mother and father; secondly those called upon by
parents as a substitute to help care for their children;
thirdly, the highly trained professional, the mothercraft nurse,
the pre school and primary school teacher, the social worker,
psychiatrist and other professionals whose work is associated
with children.
A program of this sort will cost about $ 130 million in a full
year.
A program of this sort is needed
15,000 children left unattended during the working day;
365,000 children under the age of six who are children
of working parents. One in every two of these children
is in the care of persons absent from the home for more
than eight hours per working day;
one in every three of these 365,000 children is in the
care of relatives, friends or neighbours. One in every
ten only attend a nursery school, creche or similar
institution.
The Liberal-Country Party says it really cares for the children
of Australia. It says it would reject or reduce a program
designed to overcome the present need both for care and
education of the young. It says it would cost too much.
DETAILED OUTLINE OF THE PROGRAM FOR THE
CARE AND EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN
The Labor Government has developed a new and imaginative program
f or the care and education of young children. This program is
now ready for implementation.
The program will offer diverse and interrelated facilities in
the development of which each community will be involved. The
scheme will benefit half a million children by 1978.
Key features:
pre-school education will be free for all children whose
parents choose to send them. All children, whether they
are cared for in their own home or elsewhere will have
access to these educational opportunities;
child care will be subsidised, with parents contributing
to the cost according to their means. The main thrust
of the program in the first few years will be to offer
financial and other assistance to the children of
disadvantaged families.
The Australian Government program breaks down the traditional
distinctions between child care and pre school facilities. It
recognises the need for educational, health and welfare
components in child care; it recognises the need for these
same services for children whether they be at home or in care.
What matters is the total development and happiness of the child
and the family. The programs now being-developed will offer
genuine choices to mothers and families and will ensure that all
children enter school free of the disadvantages which may follow
from inadequate pre school and child care facilities.
The key element in the ' new design' is flexibility. Innovation
and diversity will be stimulated.
This program will not only include full day care programs and
education programs, it will offer emergency and occasional care,
before and after school care, holiday programs, informal play
groups, toddlers' groups and baby sitting pools, to mention but
a few. Similar schools are already in existence in other
countries. Australia lags behind the rest of the world.
The program is sensibly based on a recognition of the value of
much of the care already being provided within communities.
At present one in every three children remains in the care of
relatives, friends or in what has become to be known as family
based child care. This form of care will continue to be
developed and will begin to be supported by a wide range of
services. The thrust of the government's contribution will be
the provision of emergency facilities for sick children or children
in the care of a sick mother, access to education within family day
care facilities, counselling services, training opportunities for
the day mother and provision of welfare and medical services. 2/