Cowper candidates gather to share perspectives ahead of Federal Election 

Four candidates for the next Federal Election have held a forum in the New South Wales regional community of Nambucca Heads, outlining their positions on the election hot topic of early childhood education and care (ECEC).

Held at the town’s Community and Arts Centre, the event was organised by lobby group The Parenthood, which represents the interests of more than 80,000 parents and carers, however very few representatives of that demographic attended, according to local news source News Of The Area.

The 35 people at the forum included candidates Greg Vigors (Labor), Caz Heise (Independent), Wendy Firefly (Greens) and Chris Walsh (One Nation), as well as Nambucca Valley councillors David Jones, Susan Jenvey and Ljubov Simson.

Nationals candidate Pat Conaghan was an apology, as was Family First candidate Peter Jackel. Five pre-prepared questions were directed at candidates, allowing each of them a minute to deliver their response.

Speakers acknowledged that the problems facing working parents in the area included a shortage of available carers, long waits for early childhood places, no spaces in nearby facilities and few options for shift workers.

Other issues discussed included a lack of appropriate staff training and the overall cost of care. Candidates, in the majority, agreed that problems with finding staff were linked to poor pay, low respect, and the shortage of facilities; and they committed to working hard for the sector if elected.

Mr Vigors outlined the numerous commitments made by the Labor Party during its term, including three days of subsidised care and the Worker Retention Payment grant, as well as the Building Early Education Fund (BEEF) which has a focus on regional areas.

Caz Heise, the Independent candidate chosen by the Voices4Cowper, said the commitments from Labor were encouraging but noted that “nothing had been done” to improve the situation in the past four years.

She said the region had been overlooked in a variety of areas due to it being viewed as a “safe seat” for the National Party, and committed to listening to the wishes of the people in a way that she believed the larger parties could not.

One Nation’s Chris Walsh said his was a party for “the people” and advocated for better support of parents in general, and that more should be done to encourage in-home care, such as that provided by grandparents and stay-at-home parents.

Greens candidate Wendy Firefly advocated for childcare (sic.) to be free and accused sitting member Pat Conaghan of “letting us down”.

“One in three corporations don’t pay tax,” she said. “If we had that revenue, we could solve this problem and we could have free education, free healthcare and people could get the wages they deserve.”

To read the original article covering the forum please see here.