Nanny state holds appeal for Liberal heartland
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday December 17, 2009
AUSTRALIA must overcome its "ideological abhorrence" to nannies if it is to fully utilise the nation's female talent, the Opposition's new childcare spokeswoman, Sharman Stone, said.In her first big interview since taking on the portfolios of early childhood education, childcare and the status of women, Dr Stone said the Labor Party had to ditch its "knee-jerk" views on in-home care and do more to help families for whom conventional childcare was not appropriate."In Australia we've got this extraordinary antipathy towards someone called a nanny," she told the Herald. "Labor in particular ... has this notion that the concept of a nanny in itself should never be discussed out loud because it's elitist."Dr Stone said that for some families, such as those with more than one child under school age, in-home care made sense."I'm in touch with so many women with young children, and they tell me regularly, those from places like inner-Sydney where childcare is exorbitant, the cheapest and best option for them is to be able to employ someone in the home."Federal subsidies such as the childcare rebate and the childcare benefit are available to users of approved childcare services only. In 2006, a House of Representatives inquiry chaired by the Liberal frontbencher Bronwyn Bishop recommended that nanny care be categorised as approved care and so be eligible for subsidies.The inquiry also recommended the Government investigate a national au pair program that would allow travellers to work as live-in child carers on a special category of visa. And it recommended that parents be given the option of claiming childcare expenses as a tax deduction instead of claiming government childcare subsidies.Dr Stone said the tax treatment of childcare expenses needed to be revisited."At the moment you can claim the dry-cleaning of your uniforms as part of the cost of remaining in employment, but when it comes to a parent having to pay for childcare, we seem to have a very different response."Figures released last week by the Bureau of Statistics showed more than 1 million Australians did not have a job and wanted one, but were not looking for work. The majority were women, and most of them cited childcare responsibilities.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald