New childcare legislation introduced into federal parliament has been welcomed by the Indigenous sector's peak body, but the organisation warns deeper problems can't be solved by adding more layers of bureaucracy.
On Wednesday, Education Minister Jason Clare said the Commonwealth's "biggest weapon" to improve safety and quality in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector is its funding power.
"I think most mums and dads will think it's fair that if centres are repeatedly not meeting the sort of standards that we set for them, that we should have the power to be able to cut that funding off," Mr Clare said. "This is not about shutting centres down. It's about lifting standards up and giving us the powers to make that happen."
In response to the legislation, SNAICC – National Voice for our Children CEO Catherine Liddle said legislative change is important, but must be accompanied by deeper, systemic reform.
"Imposing new regulations involving fines and funding cuts are only one part of the systematic change that is necessary to drive improvements in safety and quality issues in early education," Ms Liddle said.
"We need to deal with the root causes of this system such as workforce shortages, inequitable and difficult access to services and a funding model that incentivises profit over care."
The legislation focuses on increasing spot checks and cutting off funding to underperforming centres — measures Mr Clare described as a "stick" to lift standards. He also acknowledged legislation alone would not fix deeper issues, pointing to the need for a national register to track childcare workers across jurisdictions.
"I've been pretty blunt. In the last few weeks, people have been arrested and convicted of offences like those alleged before, and governments of different colours, state and federal have taken action, but not enough, and not fast enough. That's the truth," he said.
The renewed scrutiny on the sector follows the arrest of alleged paedophile Joshua Dale Brown, who was charged with more than 70 offences, relating to eight alleged victims aged between five months and two years old, while working across over 20 centres in Melbourne and Geelong, with added criticism focusing on a lack of communication between different ECEC providers who had previously worked for.
About 2,000 children have been required to get tested for STIs as a precaution after they attended childcare centres where Mr Brown worked.
Ms Liddle urged the government to take the opportunity for "long-term solutions and real reform of the system," whilst also pointing to the success of Aboriginal community-controlled early years services in delivering culturally safe, high-quality care.
"We need to be looking towards the unique expertise and supporting the needs of the services that do it best," she said.
"The Aboriginal community-controlled early years sector continues to show what is possible by delivering culturally safe, high-quality education and care for our children."
She said a funding model that supports Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) would allow greater flexibility in delivering early education that reflects the "individual and unique needs of their families and communities".
While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously indicated he wants universal access to affordable early childhood education to be his legacy, Ms Liddle said it would require "bold and ambitious" changes.
She called for "fundamentally changing the way early education and care is delivered in Australia," and moving away from one-size-fits-all approaches.
"We call on the Federal Government to seize this opportunity for real reform for our children," Ms Liddle said.
