This motion, brought to the Assembly by ACT Greens Members Jo Clay MLA and Laura Nuttall MLA, called on the ACT Government to take steps to ensure the SDN Bluebell Early Childhood Centre in Belconnen would remain open in the face of a recent announcement that the building in which it is located would be redeveloped for other purposes.
The Minister for Education and Early Childhood, Yvette Berry MLA, brought forward amendments committing to broader support for not-for-profit early childhood education and care centres at risk of closing, and to working with the not-for-profit sector to provide certainty about their leasing arrangements.
Thomas moved further amendments noting that not-for-profit centres are disadvantaged to the ACT’s planning system, which allows for the market to be saturated by an overabundance of providers in a way that disproportionately threatens the viability of not-for-profit centres while benefitting major for-profit providers. His amendments called for the ACT Government to explore legislative options to reform the planning system to safeguard the commercial viability of not-for-profit centres.
Both ACT Labor and Thomas’ amendments were agreed to, and the amended motion passed unopposed.