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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-18 Daily Xml
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Family Day Care and Respite Care

Mrs PEARCE (King) (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. Can the minister advise the house about the future of family day care services in South Australia?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (15:01): I thank the member for King for the question and for her genuine passion for early childhood in South Australia. Thousands of South Australian families use family day care and respite care services that have been provided for by the Department for Education for many years in our state. In fact, over 4,000 children are cared for and educated by more than 430 educators.

The reason for its popularity and its enduring use in South Australia is that it meets some very specific needs of South Australian families. That includes providing very flexible hours—so for shift workers who might need care early in the morning or late at night and also, of course, for parents who would like to have their kids cared for in a home environment, which is what these 430 fantastic educators provide.

Keeping all that in mind, it is remarkable that the former government decided that it would privatise this service. We know, of course—and the Treasurer touched on this before—that when they came to government in 2018 they made a solemn promise to the South Australian public that they had no privatisation agenda, but it didn't take long before they threw that out the window and they started privatising everything that wasn't bolted down. This was one of those things. Fortunately, of course COVID got in the way.

But I can tell you that it was not a popular move in the sector; in fact, key stakeholders were opposed to this. The Family Day Care Educators Association said that the prospect of this privatisation caused a lot of anxiety amongst the educators. The Public Service Association raised objections and concerns about the privatisation as well, which of course brought me, as the new minister who wanted to review this decision, to the obvious question, which was: exactly who did support this privatisation? Who wanted this privatisation and why was it planned?

The answer I got was a very telling one. When I sat down with the department, as you do early in the first days of becoming a minister, and you review these key issues, I said, 'So what was the reason behind it?' I was told: 'Minister, it was about de-risking.' It was about de-risking.

That is an incredible thing for a government to say. De-risking is something that financial institutions do. De-risking is something that KordaMentha, I think, were doing to the South Australian health system when they had a go. De-risking was what the South Australian voting public did on 19 March. But de-risking is not the kind of language you want a government to be talking about, particularly in the areas of education and early childhood.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for West Torrens!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Has the minister concluded his answer?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: I have not, thank you, Mr Speaker. So, for those reasons, I was very pleased to attend the family day care service of Depu Bhalodia at her service in Campbelltown recently and announce that the Malinauskas Labor government would not be going ahead with the privatisation of family day care services in South Australia. Of course, Depu was delighted. Other stakeholders who joined me on that day, including Merrilyn Hannaford from Family Day Care Educators Association, spoke very positively about our decision to scrap this privatisation.

I'm very pleased to inform the house that that is the reason the Department for Education will remain as the approved provider of these essential services. We are going to keep providing this really important flexible care to some of the most vulnerable children and families in South Australia. It is a great source of pride that I am on my feet again here delivering on yet another of the Malinauskas Labor government's election commitments so early in the life of this government.

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