Dear Editor - Bendigo Rally for Occasional Childcare

Dear Editor,

Peter Ryan will be the focus of a demonstration tomorrow in Bendigo to call on the Nationals to keep their promise to protect country services.

The call is part of an ongoing campaign seeking the restoration of state and federal funding for Take a Break services and comes as Occasional Childcare Centres begin closing their services.

I am a mother of two young children, living in rural Victoria, without other options for child care. These services are important for country families and the State government needs to put its share of the funding back into the services now, not if the Federal government do.

Centres were jointly funded by the State and Federal governments but when the federal government withdrew its share of the funding, the Baillieu state government cut the program completely in the May budget.

Peter Ryan’s Federal colleagues see the importance of supporting these services, with the Federal Nationals member for Gippsland apparently having written to the State Coalition Minister, Wendy Lovell urging her to reconsider her decision to withdraw funding for the program.

We are asking Peter Ryan to take a leaf out of Mr Chester’s book.  It is time for him to use his position to fix this problem. Even his Federal colleague can see that this is the right thing to do.

With these services playing such an important role for country families and their town’s local economies, it makes no sense to destroy these services.

Many families fought long and hard to get these services years ago and it would be a betrayal of their work and for current and future families to just do nothing.

We can’t understand why the State government are refusing to put in their share of the funding, even just the state’s share of funding would ease the burden on the community and volunteer run centres.

We just want them to do what every government has done for the last 25 years – fund this low cost program that means so much to the families of the 9,000 children who use these services.

DEMONSTRATION DETAILS:

When: Tuesday October 18, 9.15 am

Location: The Capital, Bendigo’s Performing Arts Centre, 50 View Street, Bendigo

Stand up for Regional Victorians - Letters

Taken from La Trobe Valley Express (p11) 05/09/2011

OCCASIONAL Childcare services in Victoria have come under attack by the State Government when it
decided to cease funding to this style of childcare in its 2011-2012 budget.

This has the potential to leave families in rural regions with no continuing services in 2012.

Small providers such as Neighbourhood Houses will be faced with an untenable financial situation as they
continue to struggle to provide such services.

Families in Gippsland need the elected National Party members Peter Ryan, Tim Bull, and Russell Northe to stand up for regional Victoria, protect occasional childcare in their electorate by securing the release of the state's 45 per cent share of the Take a Break funding immediately.

The release of the 45 per cent funding will allow for the continuance of OCC in regional Victoria.

I ask the National Party ministers to remember what happened in the 1990s when they were a part of a
Coalition Government with the Liberals, and not allow the situation to occur again.

Stand up for country families; ensure the ongoing funding of occasional childcare service or hang
your heads in shame.

Glenys McBride, Heyfield.