The National Party is promising rebates for childcare. But similar policies have been discarded overseas for failing to effectively reduce the cost of childcare. Is it time for a rethink?
The system has several elements and many problems. Making it fit for purpose will take a lot of work and even more resources than those that have just been announced.
The government is paying childcare services in hot-spots 25% of pre-pandemic revenue. But without parents’ fees, the sector is still in a tough position.
A report uses an international benchmark of no more than 7% of disposable income spent on childcare to determine affordability. It finds childcare is unaffordable for 386,000 Australian families.
A Liberal male staffer masturbating on a female MP’s desk is merely a symptom of something very wrong in the Liberal Party’s attitudes to women, not the sum total of it.
One in five early childhood educators said they planned to leave their job within a year. It is vital we design a system and policies to ensure there are enough to meet the demand.
Whether the policy benefits high-income or low-income families matters, but it also misses the point — early childhood policies need to focus on what benefits children.
The NSW and Victorian preschool funding announcements are likely to increase the growing focus on early childhood education, which is shaping up to be a major issue.
Labor’s proposed childcare measure would result in thousands of dollars saved per year. And it will make it affordable for parents who want to work more while accessing childcare.
A study found no statistically significant difference between the literacy and numeracy scores of school children who had attended preschool or childcare and children who didn’t.
Victorian parents will have a total of 72 days of free absences from childcare, if services agree to waive the gap fee. And childcare services will receive 25% of their revenue from the government.
Most children can no longer attend childcare in Melbourne. Parents have to look after them if they’re working themselves, while the sector faces collapse if the government doesn’t step in.
The government should increase the childcare subsidy for families on low to medium incomes — either temporarily or permanently. This would involve increasing the highest subsidy rate from 85% to 95%.
The government’s emergency relief package for childcare centres has kept many from collapsing financially due to COVID-19. The transition to other arrangements must be slow and carefully managed.