The present crisis in the childcare industry in Australia has been in the making for the past 50 years.

Since the 1972 childcare act, successive governments have emphasised the raison d’être for childcare services as support for workforce participation. Such a view has created a system where huge government subsidies have been poured into a growing private sector, many ASX-listed, while parents pay ever greater fees as gap fees. Guarantees for pre-school hours in recent years, to start in 2026, will depend on new not-for-profit centres being built and increased geographic access.

In 2021 I wrote in this newsletter that the Greens (disclosure: I am not a member of the Greens) were the only political party in the election who had a progressive policy on early childhood education and care services. The Greens still have a policy of universal and free early childhood education and care and have a strong position on supporting early childhood educators and others in the workforce. It was disappointing at this last election (2025) that the Labor Party put an enormous effort into fighting the Greens. In my electorate, I saw preference shenanigans of the Labor Party. On election day a member of the Advance group was allowed to harangue voters as we queued. “Stop the hate, put the Greens last!” yelled the man walking up and down illegally close to the booths. Electoral officials and the local Labor member were present to witness this.

The problems with early childhood services are myriad and historic. When the abuse that is occurring in centres today is reported in the press, it is worth asking who is complicit and is the government and legacy press response helpful? As this is an issue half-a-century old, it is worth considering mistakes made as a way of garnering the courage to make changes in the future. Rudyard Kipling had “six honest serving men” to help him consider the meaning of things. These are Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.

Who

Australian Governments, federal and state. Responsible for legislation and policy making that ignored the advice of UN organisations, such as the OECD, that recommended supply-side funding models be developed.

Reliance on private providers, especially the large corporations and overseas hedge funds.

Regulators with no teeth like the old NCAC (National Childcare Accreditation System) and the present ACECQA (Australian Child Education and Care Quality Authority). Today, a significant number of centres are not regulated and many that have undergone assessment are “working towards” quality criteria.

The growth of training organisations that are not necessarily trustworthy. One young woman who had completed an associate diploma and was proud of her work commented to me “nowadays you can get a qualification by cutting coupons off a cereal box”.

What

Australian Governments have ignored the advantages of developing community models and taken a neoliberal approach which exposes families to organisations driven by a profit motive.

The profit motive exposes children to centres that run on minimum standards, staff who are young, low-paid, ill-educated and often bullied. An example of this is the taxpayer picking up the bill to give some of these low-paid workers a pay rise to keep them in an abusive industry.

When

1972: The Childcare act was exclusively a workforce support. By the late 1980s, government subsidies were flowing to the private sector.

1991: To make giving government funding to the private sector a compulsory quality framework was developed.

2001: First private centre registered on the ASX – This was an unmitigated disaster as ABC Learning collapsed in 2008.

2009: 12 Laws regulation, curriculum and quality assessment systems were developed under ACECQA.

Present: Red flags everywhere. As each horrific scandal unfolds we are left asking “why did no one notice?”

Where

According to newspaper reports, there are stories of a lack of regulatory control being reported from all states. Appalling cases of abuse have been highlighted in three states. The crisis is endemic.

Why

Ideology. Faith in the market has been strong although there have been suggestions of “market failure” since the mid-1990s.

Relying on big business to supply necessary education and care programs needed by the community, for reasons that are social, educational and economic creates a conflict between the profit motive and civil society.

How

Industries like childcare and aged care attract significant amounts of taxpayer money but are not under the same constraints as formal school programs. ‘‘This is a business subsidised by government – how can it be unprofitable?’’ wailed ABC Learning’s former chairwoman, Sallyanne Atkinson soon after the collapse. (Sydney Morning Herald, 8 March 2014.)

Note: The Sydney Morning Herald article from 2014 names Affinity and G8 as large companies moving into the ABC Learning void. A decade later these companies are associated with present scandals

Comment

As I read the handwringing that is occurring, I am shocked that governments and early childhood organisations are playing around the edges. Ban personal phone use, discussions of the efficacy of the “Working with Children Check”, safety officers, more staff training on how to identify and report abuse sound like the same old arguments like getting severe on youth crime, tougher bail laws etc. This problem was 50 years in the making. There is a lot of taxpayer money at stake; perhaps it can be directed towards the good of the Australian community. Instead of spending huge amounts attacking the Greens vote preferences at election time, it might be time to invite them to the party on this one.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.