Child Care News
A new project shows combining childcare and aged care has social and economic benefits
The Conversation - Anneke Fitzgerald, Katrina Radford & Lalitha Kirsnan - September 3, 2018What happens when you bring a group of older residents to mix with young children in childcare? Clapping hands and singing songs is just one way they spend the morning together. These interactions are made possible by intergenerational care programs that have gained...
Importing au pairs is only a solution for the rich. We need childcare for all classes
ABC News - Lisa Bryant - September 3, 2018Most of us know that the rich, the powerful and our politicians play in a different world than us. A word in the ear of a mate here, a second cousin with a minister on speed dial there, and bingo - their children are sorted for jobs, university entry and for the perfect child minders...
Early childhood educators and carers to walk off the job
Daily Telegraph - Jack Morphet - September 2, 2018HUNDREDS of childcare workers will strike on Wednesday for the fourth time in 18 months, forcing parents to pick up their kids at lunchtime. Union leaders have organised for hundreds of Sydney childcare workers to walk off the job on Wednesday to attend an estimated 500-strong political...
G8 Education's woes and the childcare oversupply explained
Financial Review - Jessica Gardner - September 2, 2018Irate shareholders in childcare operator G8 Education wondering how it could possibly have gone so bad, so quickly, will find proof in my own personal experience of the rapid deterioration in the $13 billion industry's economics. What has occurred, as The Australian Financial Review...
'Vague, indiscriminate, frustrating': Families and au pairs risk breaking the law
Sydney Morning Herald - Andrew Taylor - September 2, 2018Australia's childcare crisis has led some families to break the law by employing au pairs without the correct visa. Experts believe the two au pairs whose threatened removal from Australia was halted following the controversial intervention of Home Affairs Minister...
Dutton affair exposes au pair visa's shortcomings
Sydney Morning Herald - September 2, 2018Peter Dutton's handling of visas for two foreign au pairs has hardly given him the image makeover he would want for a future tilt at the prime ministership. As the face of the government's tough border protection regime, his interventions on behalf of the French and Italian tourists...
Childcare oversupply driven by new subsidy but the see-saw is set to balance
Financial Review - Simon Evans - August 31, 2018A whopping 326 childcare centres opened around Australia in the past year in a substantial overshoot by developers and operators given it was just three years ago that new parents faced a severe shortage of places. It has left many childcare operators grappling with a big oversupply...
Culture around parental leave needs to change, Kelly O'Dwyer says
The Australian - Ewin Hannan - August 31, 2018New Jobs and Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O'Dwyer has called for the culture around parental leave to change, declaring society needs to normalise men as carers of their children. In her first speech in her new cabinet portfolio, ahead of Father's Day, Ms O'Dwyer said while...
Au pairs in Australia an 'extraordinary example of young people being exploited'
The New Daily - John Elder - August 31, 2018Australia's au pair agencies have a message for Peter Dutton: save yourself the hassle of endless phone calls from mates, and create an au pair visa that lets in people from all over the world. Mr Dutton found himself at the centre of a controversy this week when it was revealed...
Here's why childcare workers are walking off the job
Daily Telegraph - Gwendolyn Alcock - August 31, 2018TWO years ago, I heard someone liken the need and importance of my profession to that of a carpark; a place for parents to park their children while they went about their day. I had to force myself to bite back what I would have liked to have said in response because, sadly...
Yes childcare's expensive but pushing to limit the quality of early childhood education is wrong
Women's Agenda - Alys Gagnon - August 21, 2018Parents have plenty of reasons to complain about the cost of childcare, but arguing in favour of policies that would diminish quality childhood education in wrong, writes Alys Gagnon, the Executive Director of The Parenthood. Ask any parent of an under-five what they spend their money...
Here's why you're still paying a fortune for childcare
Daily Telegraph - Eugenie Joseph - August 31, 2018DESPITE the lip service to promoting women's workforce participation, the government can never make childcare affordable if the sector's rampant over-regulation continues unchecked. The federal government's revamped childcare subsidy, introduced just last month...
Parents lured with free iPads, groceries amid childcare glut
Financial Review - Simon Evans - August 30, 2018Some childcare centre operators have resorted to giving away free iPads or offering to pay a family's grocery bills for a week as enticements to bring in new customers as they battle against an oversupply of childcare places following a rapid acceleration in new entrants into the...
City of Perth's childcare expenses changes 'discourage parents', claim Lexi Barton and Jemma Green
The West Australian - Kate Emery - August 30, 2018Two City of Perth female councillors have criticised a proposal to limit elected members' ability to claim childcare expenses as discriminatory against women. Suspended councillors Lexi Barton and Jemma Green, both of whom have young children, have expressed concern about...
Childcare out-of-pocket costs up 50 per cent in six years, new study shows
SBS - August 30, 2018Parents are forking out almost 50 per cent more for childcare than in 2011, a new study has found. Out of pocket childcare costs for parents have skyrocketed since 2011, a new report says. The Centre for Independent Studies report released on Wednesday found that cost of increased...
