Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Preface to the Revised Edition
- Introduction: Women, the State and the Politics of Caring for Children
- 1 The Kindergarten Movement and Urban Social Reform
- 2 For the Sake of the Nation
- 3 A Mother's Place …?
- 4 Hitching Child Care to the Commonwealth Star
- 5 Playing Beneath the Sword of Damocles
- 6 For Love and Money
- 7 Child Care – an Industrial Issue
- 8 New Players, New Rules
- 9 Equity and Economics
- 10 The Market Rules … OK?
- References
- Index
8 - New Players, New Rules
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Preface to the Revised Edition
- Introduction: Women, the State and the Politics of Caring for Children
- 1 The Kindergarten Movement and Urban Social Reform
- 2 For the Sake of the Nation
- 3 A Mother's Place …?
- 4 Hitching Child Care to the Commonwealth Star
- 5 Playing Beneath the Sword of Damocles
- 6 For Love and Money
- 7 Child Care – an Industrial Issue
- 8 New Players, New Rules
- 9 Equity and Economics
- 10 The Market Rules … OK?
- References
- Index
Summary
By taking up child care as an industrial issue, trade unions are becoming involved in a wide range of issues which will affect the lives and living standards of their members both as parents and as workers in child care …
The issue of child care is therefore being taken out of the ‘welfare basket’ as a service for the poor and needy and placed firmly into the category of a universal service.
Cliff Dolan, ACTU President 1983The politics of child care under the Labor governments of the 1980s and early 1990s presented a distinct contrast with previous administrations. Under the Whitlam and Fraser governments, interest in and debate about child care was largely confined to women's organisations, child care lobby groups and a small number of government members and public servants with a direct interest in the area. In a very real sense, child care was marginal to the main policy agendas of both the Whitlam and Fraser governments (even though it featured as an electoral issue for the Whitlam government).
Following the advent of the Hawke government in 1983, the level of interest in child care policy and provision greatly intensified. Steps were taken towards integrating child care with key areas of government policy, notably labour market strategies and social security reform. Even more significantly, under the Accord negotiated between the government and the trade union movement, child care was defined as an important part of the social wage. The Children's Services' Program became of interest to far more community groups, trade unions, government ministers and departments than ever before.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Politics of Australian Child CarePhilanthropy to Feminism and Beyond, pp. 164 - 185Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998