ANN SUDMALIS AND HER LIBERAL GOVERNMENT TURNS ITS BACK ON VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN GILMORE I am deeply disappointed that Ann Sudmalis and her Liberal Government have passed the Government’s recent child care changes without fixing its serious flaws. The Government rejected expert and long-standing advice to preserve access to a minimum of two days care for vulnerable Australian children, impacting vulnerable children in Gilmore. Ann Sudmalis and her Liberal Government have actively jeopardised vulnerable children’s access to early education, to the point where experts in the sector called for the bill to be blocked in its entirety if this problem was not fixed. Around 3,280 families in Gilmore receive Child Care Benefit (#1) with around one in five children in the Eurobodalla and Shoalhaven “developmentally vulnerable on one or more domains ” (#2) The Government has chosen to ignore the evidence produced by stakeholders, by early education experts and by academics, presented to them time and time again over the last two years. The Government wasted an opportunity to present a child care reform package that the whole Parliament and the whole early education sector could support. Instead Ann Sudmalis and her Liberal Government have turned their back on Gilmore’s most vulnerable children. Media Release References: #1. Senate Standing Committee on Education and Employment – Education, 2013-2014, QUESTIONS ON NOTICE Supplementary Budget Estimates 2013-2014. #2. PHIDU Social Health Atlas of Australia, 2017, Early Childhood Development: AEDC, Developmentally vulnerable on one or more domains – 2015; Eurobodalla 19.7%; Shoalhaven 22.7%; Kiama 14.7%.
