Child Care News
Price of welfare reforms too high: Xenophon
Sky News - February 14, 2017Key crossbench senator Nick Xenophon says his party will vote against the government's new welfare bill because it's 'fundamentally flawed'. Senator Xenophon told Sky News while he supported the government's planned childcare changes, the price of related cuts was too high. 'It would mean...
Cathy McGowan v Simon Birmingham in government childcare reform stoush
The Border Mail - Shana Morgan - February 14, 2017The Federal Education Minister has accused Cathy McGowan of "misleading" her electorate by claiming proposed childcare reforms would make the Border's mobile services unviable. In an exclusive column for The Border Mail, Ms McGowan said the Coalition knew its "one size fits all" reforms...
Childcare changes: Nick Xenophon Team blocks Federal Government's omnibus bill
ABC News - Matthew Doran - February 14, 2017The Nick Xenophon Team has announced it will not support the Federal Government's package of changes to child care and welfare benefits. Last week the Coalition introduced a so-called omnibus bill to try to force nearly $4 billion in savings through the Parliament. The bill included increases to...
Morrison pressures Senate on savings bill
The Australian - Sarah Martin - February 14, 2017Labor has indicated it will oppose the bill, leaving the government to negotiate with Senate crossbenchers to legislate new means-tested childcare reforms, scaled-back FTB payments and a two-week increase of paid parental leave. Of the $5.5bn savings achieved by cutting family tax...
Childcare centres earn favourable report card
The Mercury - Blair Richards - February 14, 2017TASMANIA'S Education Minister has pledged kindergartens will be held to the same high standards as childcare centres under changes to the school starting age. Tasmania's childcare sector has received a favourable report card from the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority's...
Childcare fees stop parents working more
9News - February 13, 2017Parents are telling childcare providers they want to work more but can't afford the extra days of care because they're hitting the ceiling on government subsidies. More than half the parents surveyed by the nation's largest childcare organisation, Goodstart Early Learning, say they would work or study more if...
Baby steps towards a truly modern childcare system
Sydney Morning Herald - Jessica Irvine - February 12, 2017The Child Care Rebate has been the most problematic element of the current system. Agreeing that taxpayers will foot half the bill for whatever childcare providers charged lead to a huge inflation in fees. In the year the Rudd government increased the rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent, average...
$20bn welfare savings in 'winners vs losers' approach
The Australian - Rick Morton - February 11, 2017This analysis does not include childcare costs, which will increase over the decade to 2026-27 but which the government says will provide an economic dividend in the form of families returning to work while raising children. More than $1.7bn in extra spending will go to childcare over the next four years...
Crackdown on dodgy childcare operators saves close to $1bn
The Australian - Rick Morton - February 10, 2017Almost $1 billion in taxpayer money has been prevented from falling into the hands of dodgy childcare operators during the past three years and more than 100 services have been cancelled in the past year alone, new data reveals. After years of crisis in the family daycare sector - during which...
Winners and losers from Malcolm Turnbull's welfare cuts
Financial Review - Fleur Anderson - February 9, 2017The surprise this week was the fact that without warning, Turnbull attached one of his positive goals for the 45th Parliament - childcare - to the remnants of the "stinking carcass" of the infamous 2014 "lifters and leaners" budget. To the fury of Labor leader Bill Shorten and his frontbench, the Turnbull...
No deal, Labor says on childcare bill
SBS News - February 9, 2017Labor has ruled out supporting a Turnbull government omnibus bill that bundles an overhaul of childcare fee subsidies with welfare cuts. "These are just the same old cuts which the government''s been trying since 2014," shadow treasurer Chris Bowen told ABC radio on Thursday. The opposition...
Turnbull throws down challenge on childcare savings
The Australian - Sarah Martin - February 9, 2017Malcolm Turnbull has thrown down a $4.3 billion savings challenge to parliament over family payments, seeking support for cheaper childcare and more generous paid parental leave funded by cuts to middle-class welfare. Sacrificing savings of $2.4bn in a compromise omnibus bill that was...
Coalition faces uphill battle after linking childcare package to rejected welfare cuts
The Guardian - Katharine Murphy - February 8, 2017The opposition highlighted the fact that single-parent families would lose family tax benefit B entirely when their youngest child turns 16, leaving them $3,000 a year worse off. The childcare benefits also only apply if families have children enrolled in daycare or after school care. Instead of...
Childcare and paid parental leave changes haven't considered what's best for children
Sydney Morning Herald - Lisa Bryant - February 8, 2017So which children will be winners and which will be losers? Let's start with paid parental leave. To hear the government talk, the paid parental leave changes are an improvement on what currently exists. They're not. So contorted has this debate become that the government can now offer paid...
Cory who? Turnbull cops $700m budget hit to secure childcare win
Financial Review - Phillip Coorey - February 8, 2017Reflecting an ongoing preparedness to compromise with an unwieldy Senate crossbench, the government has slowed the cuts to Family Tax Benefits annual supplements which were slated to fund the childcare boost. It has also slightly increased the paid parental leave scheme and added an extra two...
