Listen to thisFederal Senator David Leyonhjelm has been labelled a “dinosaur stuck in the past” following much-criticised comments he made about childcare workers on TV show The Project.
However, the Liberal Democrat politician has refused to back down from controversial remarks where he summarised the role of childcare workers as merely “wiping noses and stopping the kids from killing each other”.
During an interview on Tuesday night’s program he said he wouldn’t support the new $3 billion childcare reform package “without amendment” and suggested “wind(ing) back the regulations affecting childcare and also family daycare” by cutting the required credentials.
“Apart from the fact you want to make sure there aren’t any paedophiles involved, you have to have credentials these days to be a childcare worker,” he said. “A lot of women, mostly women, used to look after kids in childcare centres. And then they brought in this national quality framework and they had to go and get a Certificate III in childcare in order to continue the job they were doing – you know, wiping noses and stopping the kids from killing each other.
“A lot of women just quit. The ones who got certificate threes said, ‘OK, I want more pay now that I’m more qualified’. All we did was drive up the cost because of this credentialism.”
Senator Leyonhjelm was slammed by Labor’s Kate Ellis, the Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Development.
“These are the ranting comments of a dinosaur who is stuck in the past and is choosing to ignore all the evidence,” she told news.com.au on Wednesday. “Early childhood educators are hardworking professionals. We need to value them more, not talk down their incredibly important work on national TV.”
Ms Ellis said there was an “overwhelming body of evidence” showing early education provided a boost to children’s development. “Parents trust educators with an incredible responsibility every day, of course we need to make sure they are skilled and qualified.”
Childcare workers and parents reacted with outrage, saying the New South Wales senator’s comments were a slap in the face to the “woefully undervalued” workers who provide education for children in their crucial early developmental years.
“Never have I ever felt so undervalued as an educator,” viewer Bianca Renee wrote on Facebook. “I’d welcome him to try and do our job for just a day ... bet he wouldn’t come back for day two.”
Meagan Harmey wrote: “I wish all I did was ‘wipe snotty noses and stop them from killing each other’. What about the hours of paperwork that requires us to observe, report and document the children’s learning, development and interests?”
“I haven’t done 11-and-a-half years of being an educator to be marked off a joke. And (as) a mother I want qualified educators looking after my children,” Staci Rae wrote.
But the defiant senator stood by his remarks on Wednesday morning, blaming soaring childcare costs on the qualifications of workers.
When asked by David Koch on Channel 7’s Sunrise why he had “slammed” those in the sector, Senator Leyonhjelm replied, “I didn’t slam them, I’ve been verballed. That wasn’t what I said. I said you don’t need a Certificate III and 18 months of study to be a childcare worker to wipe childrens’ noses and stop them from killing each other.
“The point is childcare is too expensive. Why is it expensive? Because we’re requiring childcare workers to get certificates to do things that they already know how to do.”
One Nation’s Pauline Hanson chimed in that she agreed wholeheartedly agreed with the senator’s comments.
“I’m with David on this one, he’s right. He’s definitely right,” she said.
Jo Briskey, Executive Director of not-for-profit parents’ group The Parent Hood, said the comments were not just insulting to workers but to parents who had no choice but to leave their children in care when they returned to work.
“The first five years of a child’s life are absolutely critical and the people who are working and educating them deserve our admiration and respect,” Ms Briskey told news.com.au.
“Comments like those made (Tuesday) night are an insult to anyone involved in the sector. It is unbelievably insulting to say they are nothing more than babysitters when those days are long gone. Research demonstrates children receiving early learning before they go to school are being set up to do better at school and in life.”
Ms Briskey said it was a further slap in the face to a dedicated sector renowned for being poorly paid.
“They are woefully paid, absolutely woeful,” she said. “Some of these educators could earn more stacking shelves at Coles, which is outrageous. They are undervalued, absolutely. A number of educators can’t afford to stay in the job they love and so many leave. We need to be doing better, not insulting them like this.”
Within hours of Tuesday night’s interview, the video of Senator Leyonhjelm’s comments had been shared over 1500 times on Facebook and racked up over 1100 comments.
The CEO of the Community Child Care Co-operative in Marrickville, in Sydney’s inner west, was at odds with the senator’s comments. On Twitter, she said he “lacked respect for the ECEC (early childhood education and care) workforce and role in Australia’s future success.”
Others were less polite calling him variously an “offensive turd,” and a “bloody moron”.
By James Weir, Kim Stephens and Benedict Brook,
11 January 2017
