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Thursday, 26 July 2007

Howard Versus the States in Many Ways

Prime Minister John Howard has added a new way to the list of roles that State Governments are destined to play in this year's election campaign. As from yesterday they are to be blamed for any future interest rate rises decreed by the Reserve Bank. The Labor states, he told a business luncheon in Perth , were needlessly adding to the inflationary pressure by borrowing whereas his Government had paid off its debt and "vacated the field of adding to pressure on interest rates through its borrowing."

Goodness knows whether this attempt at spreading the blame will work if the rate rise the pundits of the market are predicting actually occurs but it has to be worth a try. After all the years of self praise for keeping interest rates down, an increase next month or in September is the last thing Mr Howard needs. Probably no excuse will allow him to escape the anger of people affected by higher mortgage payments.

Elementary as ABC - Labor and Child Care

There are some aspects of the private enterprise system about which ordinary voters are skeptical and child care, along with health and education, is among them. The public is uneasy about the profit motive being the determining factor in what services are provided and where they are available. Yesterday's inflation figure showing that child care costs in the last year - for the fourth year in a row - rose by more than 12% will surely have increased the concern.

Labor's Shadow Minister for Families & Community Services, Jenny Macklin, might have lacked the charisma to be an effective deputy leader but she has the ammunition to redeem her reputation by making this in to a major election issue and her comment on the CPI suggests that she will put a little private sector bashing on to the agenda. In promising that Federal Labor will require local child care fees and fee increases to be published, and require parents to be given at least two months' notice of any fee increase, Ms Macklin drew attention to the Australian Bureau of Statistics CPI report that "the rise in the net price of child care across all cities this quarter was mainly due to rises in fees by some providers of private day care."

Federal Labor, she promised, will establish an Office of Work and Family in the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet to work with the States and Territories and child care providers and publish:

    * local child care fees;

    * vacancy data;

    * breaches of quality standards; and

    * parental reviews.

But it is the method by which up to 260 new child care centres will be built that should have the private sector providers of child care really worried. Ms Macklin wants them established on primary school grounds where possible which is a broad hint that not-for-profit bodies will be favoured.