Child Care News
Mining billionaire Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest wants welfare payments linked to school attendance
News.com.au - Malcolm Farr - June 30, 2016Mr Forrest said the same type of welfare threat behind the "no jab, no pay" strategy to get youngsters protected from serious illness could be used to protect them from a failed education. He wants a trial of measures making school attendance a condition for receiving the Family Tax Benefit A and...
High staff turnover in childcare sector affects children's development, researcher says
ABC News - Jessica van Vonderen - June 29, 2016Education experts fear a high turnover in childcare workers will have a detrimental impact on children at a critical point in their development. A nationwide survey of 1,200 childcare workers conducted by the Queensland University of Technology found one-in-five intended on leaving their job in...
Federal election 2016: Major parties accused of neglecting work and family issues
Sydney Morning Herald - Anna Patty - June 29, 2016"We have had an eight-week election campaign and very little public conversation around work and family," Dr Hill said. "We have two childcare policies, but they haven't been presented in a holistic way and they are not joined up with paid parental leave. We have the Coalition standing by their...
Childcare: Coalition rejects modelling showing families better off under Labor
The Guardian - Gareth Hutchens - June 28, 2016The Coalition has flatly rejected the results of modelling that shows most families would be better off under Labor's childcare and family payments policy than under its own over the next two years. The education minister, Simon Birmingham, said he would rather stick with official analysis from...
Election 2016: What Vote Compass reveals about paid parental leave and childcare
ABC News - Mazoe Ford and Clare Blumer - June 28, 2016Paid parental leave and childcare are key areas of policy difference between the major parties ahead of Saturday's federal election. But where do Australian voters stand on these critical issues for Australian families? The ABC's Vote Compass survey provides some insights about what the wider...
Election 2016: What are the six key points from election campaign?
ABC News - Dan Conifer - June 28, 2016Labor pledged $3 billion to help families with childcare fees from January 2017. It would do this by lifting the childcare rebate cap from $7,500 to $10,000 and increasing the means-tested childcare benefit by 15 per cent - up to $31 extra a week. The Coalition's overhaul of the sector - that would...
Early childhood education faces crisis as workers quit
Ten News - June 27, 2016Unappreciated and poorly paid, alarming data shows Australian early childcare workers are jumping ship en masse. New national research reveals one in five will quit their job in the next year, as a love of working with children cannot overcome the industry-wide scourge of low wages and...
Mums unsure on paid parental leave
The West Australian - Phoebe Wearne - June 26, 2016Primary carers for newborns are currently entitled to 18 weeks PPL at the minimum wage as well as their employer's PPL scheme - if their employer has one. The Federal Government has signalled it will press ahead with plans to prevent parents from claiming PPL from the Government as well...
No relief in the budget for NSW parents using childcare services
Sydney Morning Herald - Kelsey Munro - June 25, 2016It's the question being asked by the community childcare peak body: is a NSW child worth less? Despite boasting a huge surplus in Tuesday's budget, in a state where preschool and childcare fees are the nation's highest the NSW government is still spending the least per child on early childhood...
Election 2016: Robbing Peter to pay middle-class Paul
Financial Review - David Leyonhjelm - June 23, 2016A far bigger problem is welfare paid to people who have good jobs and are not even remotely poor. This is known as "middle-class welfare". One of the most egregious examples is childcare support. This comes in two forms: the Child Care Benefit is paid to families with incomes up to $178,023 (or...
One in five early childhood educators plan to leave the profession
The Conversation - Susan Irvine, Jennifer Sumsion, Jo Lunn & Karen Thorpe - June 23, 2016Of the 1200 early childhood educators and degree qualified teachers working in long day care centres and preschools across Australia who were surveyed, around one in five said they planned to leave their job within a year because of low pay, feeling undervalued and increasing time spent on...
City needs schooling in delivering on childcare
Alt Media - Christopher Harris - June 23, 2016The City of Sydney is falling behind on plans to build six additional childcare centers by the end of this year, and one will not be built ever, according to Labor councillor Linda Scott. Councillor Scott told City Hub that council papers released this week showed that the Sydney Park site for the...
River City Labs to be first startup hub with childcare
Financial Review - Michael Bailey - June 22, 2016Brisbane's River City Labs is about to call for tenders to provide onsite childcare, the first in Australia attached to a startup co-working space. Female membership has "rarely been above 10 per cent" at River City Labs says Peta Ellis, who was its general manager for four years before taking...
Election 2016: How the national vote will affect your finances
Sydney Morning Herald - Leo D'Angelo Fisher - June 22, 2016The government plans to streamline subsidies into a single means-tested subsidy. The Coalition says families with incomes of between $65,000 to and $170,000 will be about $30 a week better off. Families earning up to $65,700 a year would receive the highest subsidy (up to 85 per cent of childcare...
Men are afraid to take parental leave
Financial Review - Rebecca Greenfield - June 21, 2016Men not taking time off to care for newborns, it turns out, is a difficult cultural norm to overcome. Parental leave policies that offer the same amount of time off to all new parents are on the rise. Yet fathers still don't want to take it. They're afraid. Men still think their careers will suffer if they...
