Labor has unveiled a $3 billion child care policy it will take to the polls on July 2. What has the party proposed and how is it different?
The shadow minister for early education, Kate Ellis, said child care costs had undergone a ‘massive increase’ since the last federal election.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Labor’s shadow minister for early education, Kate Ellis, said there has been a massive increase in child care costs under the Coalition government. Is that an accurate reflection of the data?
Social Services Minister Scott Morrison announces that a A$3.5 billion child-care subsidy will begin from July 1 2017 if the Senate passes previously rejected Family Tax Benefit savings.
AAP/Paul Miller
Lost in the political debate about subsidising child care is the fact that universal free preschool care has been abandoned as a goal of good social policy.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Social Services Minister Scott Morrison hope the government’s childcare policy will encourage more Australians to enter or re-enter the workforce.
Paul Miller/AAP
Making the case for subsidising childcare is not as simple as it might seem, and the government’s new childcare package may not pay for itself.
Removing the childcare rebate for parents who do not fully immunise their children is unnecessarily punitive and could have repercussions.
Oksana Shufrych/Shutterstock
Immunisation in Australia isn’t compulsory – and doesn’t need to be controversial. Most Australians recognise the incredible benefits that vaccination provides to prevent serious disease.
Time to go back to work?
Toddler via Photographee.eu/Shutterstock
Over the last 20 years, early childhood education and childcare for the under-fives has become a major policy priority in the UK. Get more mothers into work, it’s argued, and we can start to close the…
Research shows kids are better off with quality early childhood learning, so why cut the funding?
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The recent announcement by assistant education minister Sussan Ley that the 15-hour preschool entitlement introduced by the ALP in 2013 may be wound back to 12 hours signals a worrying trend in Australian…