How does Competitive Neutrality apply to childcare?
Under the new Competitive Neutrality (CN) Policy, any government business – including local government owned and operated childcare centres – can be “exempt” if it is shown that implementation of CN measures to the business in question is “not in the public interest”. (See page 5 of A Guide to Implementing Competitive Neutrality (the CN Guide)). Childcare is something of a special case in the application of CN which, in accordance with the Competition Principles Agreement, is to be applied across all significant publicly owned businesses. The Government recognises that childcare is often provided by local councils in response to specific community needs and public policy objectives. However, it is not always the case that the full cost of the provision of childcare is transparent and therefore recognised by councils or their constituents. A key feature of the new CN Policy – Competitive Neutrality Policy Victoria 2000 – is the public interest test which allows government businesses to
