Kevin Rudd says future of child care threatened by Coalition policy 'released in dead of night'

Updated

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned a "mysterious Liberal policy that popped into existence" threatens the quality and future of child care.

The Coalition says its Policy for Better Child Care will make the system more flexible, affordable and accessible for Australian families.

The document flags a ministerial review of the Early Years Quality Fund (EYQF) - a pool of money that selected centres can draw on for wage increases.

"If elected, the Coalition will honour funds contracted from the EYQF but no further expenditure will be approved," it reads.

"Any increase to the salaries of child care employees will be a matter for the Fair Work Commission and their employers. However, all remaining funds in the EYQF will be retained in the child care portfolio."

Mr Rudd homed in on the paragraph in the policy, which he says was made public "in the dead of night" on the day before the vote.

"What that means is the bucket of money which we, the Australian Government, have out there to assist child care centres around the country to have qualified teachers at the centre ... to do the pre-literacy and pre-numeracy courses which are the absolute core of our early childhood education program, is, according to this statement, gone for the future," he said.

"In other words, they will accept any contract which exists up until now, but gone for the future."

Finance Minister Penny Wong says the document "confirms quite clearly the cuts that are coming to childcare should Tony Abbott be elected".

"[The EYQF] was set up by federal Labor to contribute to improving the wages of child care workers. Cutting it does two things.

"One it means child care workers around the country risk having their wages cut or stopping any wage increase they had already factored in.

Where do the parties stand on childcare?

Not sure about the state of play? Inform your vote using our Not sure about the state of play? Inform your vote using our policy page

"The second risk is to parents who use child care centres. Those centres have already provided these wage increases - the only way those centres can provide the funding for the wage increases now that Tony Abbott has made clear he will cut the funding is to push fees up."

Mr Abbott has repeatedly said he has been upfront with the Australian people on his policies and costings, saying Mr Rudd is simply engaging in a scare campaign.

The Liberal Party campaign has been contacted for comment, along with opposition child care spokeswoman Sussan Ley.

The Government has promised $300m to boost the wages of childcare workers in the next two years, and intends to set up a Pay Equity Unit in the Fair Work Commission to look at boosting wages in the sector over the long term.

The Coalition also supports higher wages, but does not support the Pay Equity Unit.

It has consistently said the Fair Work Commission should be responsible for determining salaries for child care workers.

Topics: child-care, family-and-children, federal-elections, elections, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia

First posted