Hefty price rises hit family hard
- by: Susie O’Brien
- From: Herald Sun
- December 02, 2011 12:00AM
DAD Tasman Tudor is furious that Carnegie Childcare Centre is about to become one of the state’s most expensive.
Run by Glen Eira Council, it will charge parents of children under two $116 a day before government subsidies. Mr Tudor’s children Jasper, 2, and Maddison, 1, both attend the centre, which will have two price increases after changes to government regulations.
The daily fee increased in July from $85 to $91 and will go up again next month to $116 for babies and younger children.
“The council is clearly profiteering from this centre and covering costs at head office,” he said. But council director of community relations Paul Burke said it had put in a $100,000 subsidy to keep the centre operating. “The simple fact is that an increase in standards has led to an increase in costs,” he said.
Parents from the two Bayside Council-run centres due to close by the end of 2013 are also angry. “It’s very sad for parents and staff … there’s just shock and disbelief,” Hampton East mother of two Sheri Haby said.
Glen Eira Debates 
December 2, 2011 at 10:22 AM
It would be far easier for Council to close all it’s centres. All Council gets is a hiding for no reason.Every time the Government increases Standards there is a cost involved which must be recovered. Cost recovery comes from Users or all of us.Me says our rates are high enough.
December 2, 2011 at 10:49 AM
Closing all centres has been the long range plan. Only thing that’s stopped this is public pressure so the next best solution is to price people out of the market and the centres will close anyway.
December 2, 2011 at 10:35 AM
Glen Eira is certainly getting a lot of newspaper coverage lately. Not one article is positive …. what does that tell you and should be telling Council.
December 2, 2011 at 11:22 AM
Don’t believe everything you read in papers, especially Council papers.
About ten years ago Mr Newton brought down his Financial Sustainability program to ensure the future financial security of Glen Eira. Gullible Councillors bought the idea. So tens of millions of dollars of supposedly surplus land was sold off. (Surplus land, like libraries, nursing homes, parkland and so on, all sold). Mr Newton even flogged off the council works depot in Glenhuntly. The depot was closed, no longer needed, so we were told. Magically, it re-appeared in the centre of Caulfield Park. So it was needed after all. Right now it is heavily used, as a parking area for council works trucks and other machinery.. All in our very precious parkland.
But wait! There is more…Mr Newton was heavy on the city being ‘Risk Free’, with zero debt. Now we are the most debt laden we can be. Mortgaged up to the hilt. Not long ago, Mr. Newton was spruiking a new council funded library in Elsternwick. Also pushing for a supermarket there on council land. Its all come to nothing, because Glen Eira is now high risk, and financially unsustainable. We can’t afford even to buy our way out of the hole we are in. Councillor Lipshutz famously claimed the GESAC pools will have no effect on our rates. Just look at our rates now, skyrocketing every year.
The crisis we are facing is huge. That is why Glen Eira rates are shooting up, why things like garbage collection charges have gone up, why we don’t have enough parkland for people to play frisbees, why basketball clubs have to fight over the limited facilities.
Now we know, compliments of the Herald Sun, that the Carnegie Childcare Centre is the state’s most expensive. Surely that puts the lie to any claim of financial sustainability. Glen Eira won’t be financially sustainable or risk free for decades to come. The city has a plummeting credit rating, largely because of the financial risks associated with the monster debt of GESAC . We used to have the best Triple A rating, largely as a result of the financial programs of the former Caulfield and Moorabbin councils. Their programs and policies were taken over lock stock and barrel by Mr Newton when he was Glen Eira’s Manager of Finances. Margaret Douglas, the brilliant CEO back then, always kept a firm hand on things, and controlled the excesses of her staff. But now all has changed. The splendid asset base we used to have has now been squandered. All frittered away by the administration.
R.I.P, Glen Eira, a once proud, well-run City. .
December 2, 2011 at 12:17 PM
This price hike has been known for months and months. Councillors would have known about it a lot earlier I should think. It’s disappointing then that the only public comment on the issue has been made by one councillor – Pilling – although he still ended up voting for the budget. The Best Value report claims that there is an increased demand for places for kids under 3 but this doesn’t stop this council on its hell bent neglect of its social responsibilities. If we can pay millions and millions to put down grass seeds then we can pay a fraction of that cost to ensure that families do have access to child care places. The continual argument that it’s not council’s job just doesn’t wash anymore.
December 2, 2011 at 1:09 PM
I have to say that Glen Eira is not the only one putting up their childcare fees we have to pay $100.00 per day for the same thing at a private place so l wouldn’t bitch about it that much. You can blame the Govt for the new reforms and the price hike got nothing to do with Council and anyway why should rate payers subsiduse my child to attend childcare.