By SP Councillor Stephen Jolly
Last night saw a Hansonite, exclusionary policy for child care introduced by Yarra Council (Melbourne). Rather than bite the bullet and spend more money to create more child care places, the Council majority (ALP, independents and the two right-wing Green Councillors) voted for a ‘close the borders’ policy. Cllr Kathleen Maltzhahn (Green) and myself voted against. It was John Howard who said ‘We will decide who comes to Australia’ - we now have our own pathetic version of this in Yarra when it comes to child care.No-one could answer the serious questions and points I raised last night about this policy.

1. It breeches Section 22 (b) of the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) with Yarra workers. This clause offers salary sacrifice options to workers by using Yarra child care for their kids. From now on, Yarra Council staff who live outside Yarra will be less than equal in terms of rights of access to Yarra childcare. This is clearly in breech of the EBA, as ASU members and officials have indicated to me. However the ALP and Greens couldn’t have cared less - workers’ rights for them is something to attack Howard on, not implement locally. Green Cllr Farrar, who as a Media Alliance union official lives off workers’ dues during the day, at night seemed to transform herself into a childcare Hansonite and stepped on workers’ entitlements. How can she justify voting for a policy that is anti-worker?

2. The policy is a smokescreen to pretend they are doing something. There are nearly 700 kids waiting for a child care place in Yarra. Only just over 100 kids at Yarra centres are from outside the (Jeff Kennett-created artificial) Yarra ‘borders’. The waiting lists will therefore not disappear. On top of that it will lead to retaliation from neighbouring Councils. A survey undertaken by child care supporters yesterday showed that in a war on child care Yarra could come off second best. 3 of Darebin’s 24 centres were rung and reported 28 Yarra kids; 4 of 24 in City of Melbourne had 29; 2 of 17 in Banyule had 3. This equals 60, with only a fraction of centres rung - and not including Moreland!

The same Councillors that slam City of Melbourne for pulling out of the regional library relationship, introduce a narrow minded approach to child care. The same Councillors who claim to be doing this to create new spots are the same Councillors who want to increase child care fees this year by over 9% and refuse to help St. Andrews Kindy in Clifton Hill in its time of need.

Only the naive or politically aligned could be fooled that this policy is about helping struggling families access childcare.

Questions without notice

I asked when the footpath trading officer position will be filled. At the moment an agency worker is in the spot. I hope management are not thinking of dividing the important tasks of this position amongst the already-overworked staff in this department. Or worse still replace the position with another senior management post.

I asked where the 67% of Federal government funding Yarra gets for child care spots we don’t actually have goes.

Public Question Time

Residents asked about the dance parties at Dights Falls. After meeting with party organisers as well as residents, I proposed a compromise plan which will be discussed with all sides in the next few days. Watch this space.

The overwhelming feeling one gets at Yarra Council is of a do-nothing approach. Smokes and mirrors policy like the priority of access; no pro-active backing of residents fighting high rise development; total faith in the senior officers; and seeing residents as pests. SP will ensure that residents are aware of what is going on at Council as we get closer and closer to the 2008 Council election.