Excerpts
As the Australian community comes to grip with the atrocious allegations of child sex abuse in childcare centres in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, extra attention has been paid to the role of the profit motive in facilitating abuse.
Speaking on Insiders last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged that some for-profit operators have put profit above children’s safety but has reassured the community that there is no “in principle” objection to for-profit operators in the childcare sector.
The strategy on the part of the government has been to make it less attractive for these operators to put profit above children’s interests by withdrawing funds from centres that don’t meet quality standards, rolling out CCTV cameras across the country, as well as implementing mandatory child safety training for early education and care workers.
We don’t doubt that some of these measures can make it somewhat less attractive for for-profit operators to put profit above children’s interests. The issue for the government is that it has now acknowledged that the profit motive can lead to abuse and neglect, and that operators must choose how much to prioritise children’s interests over profit, or vice versa.
By leaving the for-profit model intact, the government is simply making some choices less attractive than others. It is not making it the case that the very choice to put profit first is ruled out. The problem for Albanese is that a serious government would not even allow the choice between profit and children’s interests to take place.
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If organisational structures are oriented away from profit, educators are put in the best position to both protect children from abuse and neglect and create the conditions for them to enjoy meaningful caring relationships, quality time with their friends, and learning through playful exploration of their environment.
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The status quo is not defensible
When discussing the role of profit in childcare, the prime minister has also hinted that the issue is about feasibility. Because the train has already left the station, so to speak, we now must work with the system we already have, where most operators are for-profit. But this is not good enough.
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If the government is serious about universal early childhood education and care — both because of the role it plays in future educational attainment and because of how quality early education creates the conditions for children to thrive — then it needs to engage in serious reform in the sector. And this requires moving away from a for-profit model.
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