Child Care News
Where the top rated child care and kindergartens in Qld are located
The Courier Mail - Geoff Egan, Quest Newspapers - October 12, 2020Eight Queensland child care centres have been awarded to top rating from the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority. All eight of the centres to be listed as “excellent” are in the south east corner, with two in Brisbane, two in Logan, two on the Sunshine Coast...
Careless budget overlooks reality of many women's lives
The Sydney Morning Herald - Dr Shumi Akhtar - October 12, 2020Opinion: While the federal budget has rightly focused on measures targeting economic growth to claw our way out of recession, some sectors — particularly those in which women are caregivers — have been overlooked. Women have long assumed the role of major and sometimes ...
Childcare costs keeping parents out of work and hurting the economy
ABC News - Daniel Ziffer - October 12, 2020Kate Olivieri and her husband know only too well the cost of child care in Australia. "For our little family — we have just one child — but honestly it's more than our mortgage payment," said the government worker. "It's such an unbelievable amount." The Lismore-based mother and her ...
Proposal for expansion of child care centre at Chisholm
Maitland Mercury - Meg Francis - October 12, 2020An application to expand a childcare centre on Settlers Boulevard in Chisholm has been lodged with Maitland City Council.
Kurri Kurri preschoolers learn about recycling through Return and Earn initiative
Newcastle Herald - Sage Swinton - October 12, 2020The kids at Kurri Kurri Preschool are proof that good habits should start at a young age. The preschoolers learn about recycling through the Return and Earn initiative and are involved in the entire process of the scheme. Kurri Kurri Preschool director Nicci McDowell said they began...
Child care the missing ingredient in Josh Frydenberg's Federal Budget 2020 jobs plan
ABC News - Elysse Morgan - October 11, 2020The $320 million third stage of the Shepparton Rail Line Upgrade will install new signals, allowing trains to travel faster between the central Victorian city and Melbourne. That single Budget announcement was also more new money than pledged by the Government on Tuesday night...
Triple whammy: ‘Budget overlooked women when they needed it most’
The Age - Wendy Tuohy - October 11, 2020In a year that disrupted or derailed the economic fortunes of almost every sector of Australian society, data has consistently shown one group worst hit in many indicators: women. As analysts and advocates continue to express concern over the lack of measures to boost access to childcare...
'It's terrible': High childcare fees are keeping mothers out of work
Sydney Morning Herald - Katina Curtis - October 11, 2020Labor's new childcare subsidy plan is exactly the kind of signature policy encouraging aspiration and reward for effort that the party needs to be competitive at the next election, a former minister believes. Craig Emerson, a Rudd-Gillard-era minister who co-wrote the review of Labor's...
Cheaper childcare pays for itself
Financial Review - Danielle Wood and Kate Griffiths - October 11, 2020Labor went bold in its budget reply with a plan for cheaper childcare and a long-term vision for a universal system. While it is an important social policy, it is arguably an even more important economic reform. Labor plans to increase the maximum Child Care Subsidy from 85% to 90%...
Albanese pledges universal childcare subsidy in budget reply
Sydney Morning Herald - David Crowe - October 8, 2020Families are being promised a universal childcare subsidy in a Labor pledge to help more people into jobs in the recovery from recession, setting up a clash with the Morrison government over economic gains for women. Labor leader Anthony Albanese is pitching the plan as a saving worth...
‘If I’m PM I will make quality, affordable childcare universal’: Anthony Albanese pledges
Women's Agenda - Georgie Dent - October 8, 2020That Labor might make child care reform a key part of its Federal Budget reply was flagged earlier in the week, confirmed on Thursday afternoon and on Thursday night the Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese did not disappoint. Putting women at the heart of Labor’s plan...
Child care, domestic violence, science jobs and the unemployed: What do women get in the Federal Budget?
ABC News - Georgia Hitch - October 8, 2020Despite calls from the sector and the Opposition to extend or increase support for child care, there is no new funding in the Budget except for providers in Victoria, which will get $314.2 million. The Government has committed $708 million in the Budget to support providers...
That women are the losers in *this* history-making big-spending budget is shameful
Women's Agenda - Georgie Dent - October 7, 2020Women have lost jobs and hours and income at a faster rate than men. Outside the workforce, women have also taken on two-thirds of the unpaid care work at home. This pandemic has made explicitly clear just how essential the jobs – paid and unpaid – that so many women perform are. Nurses. Cleaners. Teachers. Early educators...
Women miss out in budget despite 'pink recession'
Financial Review - Hannah Wootton - October 7, 2020Then, the lack of investment in childcare would also prevent women re-entering the workforce, director of UNSW's school of economics Gigi Foster said, in what she described as the budget's "biggest omission". "Frydenberg talked a lot about helping women through the recovery...
After a bastard of a year, the Coalition unveils a budget of heroic optimism. But will it work?
The Guardian - Katharine Murphy - October 6, 2020Moving in the direction of universal free childcare (something the government experimented with during the pandemic, to the horror of some on its backbench) would be another option to mull. Australian families now spend more on childcare than the OECD average...
