PRIME MINISTk r
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
LAUNCH OF THE REPORT " CHILD CARE IN THE WORKPLACE"
NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE PERSONNEL AND
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS GROUP, MTIA
CANBERRA 7 AUGUST 1989
Bert Evans and Members
of the MTIA,
Parliamentary Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
I want to thank you, Bert Evans, and the metal Trades
Industry Association, for your invitation to launch this
important study at your Conference.
In recent years, the MTIA has been at the forefront of
industrial relations reform in this country. I've had
opportunity in the past to commend you on your involvement
in the economic restructuring sweeping Australia, and I
repeat that commendation today. Your constructive approach
to workplace reforms and award restructuring is an example
to all those concerned with effective industrial relations.
I know the MTIA has expressed its support for special
efforts in the award restructuring process to utilise better
the skills of female workers.
Now, by having this launch take place at this Conference,
you are signalling your determination to tackle a related
issue for women in the Australian workplace the key issue
of work-based child care.
We are already seeing that women are the fastest growing
component of the workforce. With the ageing of the
population, employment of women will become even more
important to maintain Australia's economic growth and living
standards.
Throughout Australia, employers are becoming increasingly
interested in the tangible shared benefits of child care in
the workplace.
Esso and Lend Lease have funded a joint child care centre at
Observatory Hill in Sydney. IBM and the St George Building
Society have become involved in making child care places
available for their employees. I had the great pleasure of
opening a multicultural child care centre in Broadmeadows in
December 1988 on land provided by The Ford Motor Company.
With this report, the Government is throwing new light on
the'-costs and benefits of this kind of child care.
And with ' this report we are offering practical and detailed
advice t o employers on how to go about setting up a child
care centre in the workplace.
In an area which is recognised as crucial to women's
employment, this report provides a model of how employers
and employees can co-operate to their mutual advantage.
The availability of affordable, accessible, good quality
child care services benefits all of us in the Australian
community. For parents, it opens up new employment prospects. It is
often the difference between whether a family will live in
hardship or not. It is also vital in enabling women to
contribute to their full potential in the paid workforce.
For the Australian community as a whole, getting parents
with young children to stay in or return to the labour force
means that the energy and skills of many more Australians
can be tapped.
And since all of us Government, industry and the community
at large stand to gain from the availability of quality
child care, we should all play a part in making it a
reality. If this is true for child care generally, then the
advantages of child care located at or near the workplace
are even greater.
The advantages to parents of accessible and reliable child
care are obvious.
Advantages to employers who grasp the challenge are more
complex and varied. As this Study points out, savings can
be expected from reduced labour turnover and a reduction in
employee absenteeism, because employers would be better able
to retain trained and experienced staff.
There are also significant taxation concessions available to
employers providing child care for their workers.
The study quantifies these benefits against the costs of
setting up and maintaining child care centres.
It concludes that when labour related benefits are taken
into account, the fees which an employer would have to
charge in order to break even would be significantly below
those charged by commercial centres.
But equally compelling benefits outlined in the Study are
not so easily quantified. They stem from an increased
ability to attract employees, improved industrial relations
within the organisation, better morale intangible benefits
that many employers see as very important motivations behind
the provision of child care.
This Study is the first of its kind to be published in
Australia. The analysis is based on a commissioned study undertaken by
Dr Russell Ross of the Social Policy Research Centre. Data
was provided by Chester House Child Care Services and
updated by Childcare at Work Ltd.
I also want to pay tribute to the assistance provided at
various stages by the Business Council of Australia, the
Confederation of Australian Industry and the ACTU.
The report sets out the practical steps to establishing a
good quality child care centre in New South Wales
including concrete, reliable and quite detailed information
about the costs that are likely to be incurred in setting up
and running such a centre. It provides contacts for
acquiring similar information in other States.
And it provides information about Commonwealth Government
assistance, about overseas experiences and about conducting
employee surveys on child care needs.
The data is impressive, the information is useful and
relevant and I am convinced this study will substantially
help employers make informed decisions on whether or not to
establish centres.
But let me make this point quite clear. Stimulating debate
which encourages employers to become involved in the
provision of child care in no way suggests that the
Government is forgetting its own responsibilities in this
area. To the contrary my Government has recognised that most of
Australia's paid workers are also parents, and we have been
and remain determined to provide what help we can to people
seeking to balance the potentially conflicting demands of
work and home.
Our achievements in developing and improving this country's
child care services give me great personal satisfaction.
The measure of our achievement is that by 1992, a total of
98,000 additional child care places will have been funded by
this Government a trebling of places since we came to
office in 1983.
Our comprehensive fee relief system ensures that child care
is affordable to Australian families.
The National Child Care Strategy, announced in the last
Budget, will provide 30,000 new child care places over the
next three years in co-operation with the States, local
government and employers.
The National Strategy includes incentives to assist industry
in the provision of child care for employees. One thousand
of the new centre-based places have been earmarked for a new
co-operative venture in which the recurrent costs will be
shared between users, the Commonwealth and the employer.
Commonwealth assistance will take the form of a contribution
towards fee relief to ensure that lower income families can
afford the cost of child care.
I have been pleased to hear that many employers have
contacted the Department of Community Services and Health
for information on this initiative and the first approval is
to be announced shortly.
Equally, there has already been strong interest among
employers in this Cost Benefit Study. Requests for copies
have been received by OSW from more than 100 of Australia's
major businesses.
The study will also I believe be a valuable basis for your
discussion at this Conference.
Whether employers seek to provide child care directly, in
conjunction with other companies or through the National
Child Care Strategy initiative, I am sure this Study will be
an invaluable resource in their decision making.
I have great pleasure in launching it now.