Children are not for profit
Petitioner:
Mx Evan Gray
| Member:
Smith, Tamara
| No. of Signatories:
1,331
| Date closed:
29/06/2025
To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly,
We, the undersigned, urge the Assembly to address the hyper-privatisation and profit seeking in early childhood education & care. This has fostered a system that puts profits first at the expense of both children and educators, which is abetted by a regulator ineffective at curbing abuse.
Most of NSW qualifies as a ‘childcare desert’ and 95% of new providers are for-profit, meanwhile, cost shifting has seen support for council services decline over the decades. Similarly, the training of educators has become the domain of ‘tick and flick’ private colleges and operators who double as RTOs under Smart & Skilled.
The regulator has also been proven to be ineffective, with operators continuing for years after not meeting mandatory standards. Many inspectors from the regulator also do not come from a background in the sector that is needed to identify issues in a service.
We ask the Legislative Assembly to call on the government to:
• Resource local government to ensure there are sufficient council-run centres to meet demand in every LGA.
• Allocate 100% of Smart & Skilled Funding to TAFE NSW for early childhood education & care training.
• Introduce rent controls upon landlords of early learning centres.
• Review and resource the regulator so that it is fit for purpose.
