Transcript - Radio Interview - ABC with Nadia Mitsopoulos - Monday, 4 April 2022
NADIA MITSOPOULOS, HOST: Let's go to Patrick Gorman, who's called in. He's the Labor MP for Perth. I suspect you've got a fight on your hands Patrick, good morning.
PATRICK GORMAN, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Good morning, Nadia. And a particularly good morning to all of the parents who are coming to grips with this news. And I'm sure they're listening intently. I really believe that overall the Mayor and the City of Perth have done a good job, but they have looked at this the wrong way. This is an investment in our city and it's an investment in education and to just look at what it costs them, is just so disappointing. I would urge those councillors and the management of the City of Perth to review this decision, to consult properly with families, and also to recognise that September is a really difficult time to get families from the childcare they're in, into a new centre. Because obviously so many children move out of childcare as the school year comes around. So to shut it in September just shows that this is being driven by penny-pinching, not being driven by the interests of children in the city of Perth.
MITSOPOULOS: Does the Council have a point though? The Lord Mayor said they do make a loss of $1.1 million, the operating costs around $600,000. And he said there's been a trend with local government moving out of childcare and that they are sort of following that trend.
GORMAN: Yeah, well, I mean, local government isn't the big financial contributor to early childhood education. That's actually the Commonwealth government. Those subsidies that parents receive, that's an investment from the Commonwealth, and that's what makes these centres viable. So I know that this can be a viable community centre and we need not just for-profit providers in the city, we need a diversity of care and options for parents. So for the city to choose to leave the CBD just for the for-profit providers is a terrible decision, very short sighted. And I also think it makes it really hard, many of us have been out there arguing that we need more education services in the city, we've got a university coming in, we need a school in East Perth. For the city to be the ones who are saying, actually we're closing down education services, it's just the wrong approach.
MITSOPOULOS: But if somebody else steps in and I appreciate what you're saying, because then that means costs may well go up. Is that better? Is that is that an alternate, a better outcome than losing it altogether?
GORMAN: Well, obviously, anything that stops the centre being closed altogether. But I would really urge the council to look at this again, to put the closure off, to consult properly with the community and to look at where there can be a community solution. So we don't just want the for-profit providers, who do a good job, but there's plenty of them in the city already. And I would note that this centre, I understand, actually had money from the Hawke Government to help with its construction back in 1989. Maybe they should just hand it back to the Commonwealth if they don't they don't want to run it. There's a lot of different options here. But if the city is just planning to take rent on something that taxpayers helped fund and build, that's really disappointing.
MITSOPOULOS: I'll leave it there. Thank you so much. Patrick Gorman there calling in. He's, of course, the Labor Federal MP for Perth. He's going to fight this decision.
ENDS