ACA National President’s Report

ACA President’s Report

Taking stock of a difficult year & looking ahead to smoother sailing!

It’s fair to say 2020 has been an incredibly challenging year with all of the changes that COVID-19 brought to the world.

Following a tremendous effort from the entire Australian community, and more recently from the Victorian community (where my family and I live), Australia appears to be on track to keep the COVID-19 curve down and allow our devastated economy to rebuild and recover.

As a sector, we can all be proud of the efforts we have made to stand by our families and our teams of staff, to keep the lights on and the doors open. Education Minister Dan Tehan has reported that the Australian Government’s ECEC Relief Package has succeeded in preventing the collapse of our sector, keeping 99 per cent of services open across Australia. This statement reflects ACA’s own observation of our sector’s survival, based on the regular engagement with our members via online surveys, phone calls and email contact. We are deeply gratified by the positive outcomes of our political engagement this year and we hope that the Transition measures that were put in place have allowed service providers to get back on their feet again. Whilst the Federal Budget announcement on 6 October did not reveal any surprises for our sector, we are heartened that the Federal Government has budgeted for further Transition Payments for Victorian service providers recovering from an extended lockdown period this year. From a national perspective, it is important to note that the Federal Government has made a commitment to consider further targeted support mechanisms in other geographic areas, should they also experience a second wave and return to restrictions similar to those in Melbourne and Victoria.

It is with enormous pride that our sector has been able to support Australian families through the most extreme circumstances this year. On that note, I would like to take this opportunity to commend all of our members on the astounding job you have done in working through the challenges of this difficult year and coming out the other side. The hard work and dedication to the families that each of our services support has very much been acknowledged privately by all levels of government, as well as publicly on Early Childhood Educators’ Day. On that note we hope that you and your team all had an amazing Early Childhood Educators’ Day, and that your educators enjoyed the thanks and recognition resulting from this year’s event. We were heartened to see so many photos of your celebrations, and also gratified to have the day recognised by government and the media, particularly in light of this year’s challenges. As 2021 comes closer into view, it is important to take stock and acknowledge the extraordinary journey that our sector has gone through this year. As individuals, as well as collectively, we have all experienced a lot of unexpected change, which can no doubt have a significant impact on life outlook and mental health. ACA is encouraging all of our members to ensure they have a staff wellbeing plan in place and remember that it has been a stressful year. Additionally, we must all be cautiously aware of the possibility of a second or third wave of the virus in our geographic area at any time. Sadly, Australia, along with the rest of the world, has to learn to live with COVID-19, which means maintaining social distancing, good hygiene and ongoing mask wearing for some time to come.

We have commended the Australian Government for their ongoing support of our vital sector, and you can rest assured that we will continue to engage with the Federal and State Governments on the issues affecting our sector. As this is the last edition of Early Edition for 2020, on behalf of the ACA Executive Committee I would like to thank you all for your ongoing engagement and support during this difficult year. We wish you all a relaxing Christmas and New Year, and let’s all hope for a little less excitement and a little more stability in 2021!

Paul Mondo ACA President