Why don’t we nationalise ECE rather than give rich Christians a monopoly?
Best Start payments to rich-list founders Wright family trust rocket to $37m
Giant childcare charity Best Start made a tax-free operating profit of $32 million last year, while also increasing payments to its rich-list founders to $37m.
Best Start – the country’s largest childcare provider, with more than 260 facilities nationally – was controversially converted into a charity in 2015 when owners the Wright Family Trust sold the business to the Wright Family Foundation for $332m.
The purchase price was settled with a vendor-financed loan to be repaid to the private family trust out of spare – and now tax-free – cashflow.
Earlier annual reports for the foundation filed to the Charities Register said the loan due to the family trust was repayable at a minimum of $20m a year, and interest could be levied if demanded by the trust. Previous years have seen the trust pay down the related-party loan by $20m annually, but accounts for the year to March 31, 2024, show this increased to $37.2m.
The Wright family – Wayne and Chloe (Chloe Wright died late last year) and their children – comprise the majority of trustees of both the foundation and their family trust.
Why on earth are we paying huge subsidies to a weird Christian monopoly?
At the centre of the Gender Pay Gap is the biological reality women carry the babies. If we as a liberal progressive society want to ensure everyone has equal agency, then surely recognising biological reality is a starting point?
The first 12months should be maternity leave – or paternity leave, either one, but one of the parents should be paid to stay home with the infant for its first year of life. Who else do you want to look after an infant other than the parent?
Meanwhile, ECE should be nationalised and made completely free for 2 year olds to 5 year olds while all after school care should be free.
Childcare costs fall unevenly and unfairly on women, so why not eliminate those costsaltogether?
Playing the Gender Pay Gap Game even when implemented, doesn’t lead to the outcomes desired.
If women having babies is stunting their pay careers, then subside the cost of having that kid with 12months maternity/paternity leave, Nationalise ECE and free after school care.
Also implement a 4 day working week for all state employees so that people’s quality of life is lifted rather than just wage growth.
The promise of Democracy is you can look in your kids face and know they will have a netter deal of it than you.
Allowing a parent to stay home with their kid for a year, provide free early education care and free after school care would do more to live up to that promise than anything else.
We need to start fighting for tomorrow because none of the politicians are.
All we need to do to fund this type of universal upgrade of the social infrastructure is tax the rich!
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They should come under control of local primary school .
Agreed 100% .
They had to increase the money they were paying to themselves each year because profits had increased and there was a danger the “charity” would end up with surplus cash and actually have to make charitable donations. However they do assure us that they will be able to be charitable to others in the future once they have finished paying themselves the money they loaned themselves to buy their company from themselves.