Child Care News

Paid parental leave: We all win when families work
The Age - Guyonne Kalb - May 5, 2016

One year after birth, 73 per cent of women with PPL have returned to work versus 69 per cent of women without PPL. We also found that women with paid leave have a stronger attachment to their job (and employer). In Norway and other Scandinavian countries, mothers' labour force...

Adelaide City Councillor Anne Moran's plan to get mums back working in the city quicker
Adelaide Now - Sam Kelton - May 5, 2016

BUILDINGS in the city should be retrofitted with childcare facilities to enable mothers to return to work quicker and legislative changes must be sought to facilitate this, one councillor says. Councillor Anne Moran will move that the Adelaide City Council seek to approach the Government, via the Capital...

Budget will 'push up childcare costs, stop women working'
The West Australian - Phoebe Wearne and Shannon Hampton - May 5, 2016

Perth workplace diversity specialist Conrad Liveris claims the Budget could result in a 5 per cent fall in the women's workforce participation rate and push up childcare waiting lists and prices. He said women had limited incentive to return to work because of the barriers they faced after...

Being a 'mumpreneur' is an option of last resort for most mums
Sydney Morning Herald - Anna Patty - May 5, 2016

And despite some high-profile success stories, many suffer significant social and financial disadvantage. Dr Foley said many mothers are pushed into self-employment by the "high cost and poor availability of child care and employers who are not prepared to recognise the contribution that part...

Canberra childcare worker fined $400 for smacking children in her care
ABC News - Elizabeth Byrne - May 5, 2016

A 61-year-old former Canberra childcare worker who smacked two children in her care has been convicted and fined $400. Una Masters is one of four people charged after an audit at the Civic Early Childcare Centre in February last year. She plead guilty to four unreasonable discipline charges from...

Federal Budget 2016: Scott Morrison's 'budget for blokes' leaves women without tax cuts
Herald Sun - Sue Dunlevy - May 4, 2016

The Productivity Commission's childcare report shows that many women lose 100 per cent of their income in childcare fees, lost family tax benefits and income tax when they increase their work hours from two to three days and from four to five days, she said. Professor Baird says she was struck...

Budget 2016: Child care groups 'extremely disappointed' by subsidies delay
ABC News - Julie Doyle - May 4, 2016

John Cherry from the country's largest child care provider, Goodstart Early Learning, said the decision would hurt families. "We're extremely disappointed that our families will need to wait another year for the Government to deliver on its promise to make child care more affordable,"...

Scott Morrison's budget fails to deliver on working mothers
Women's Agenda - Angela Priestley - May 4, 2016

The "economic plan" it pitched last night failed to address one of the key inhibitors keeping women out of the workforce - expensive, inflexible and unobtainable childcare. Worse, the $3.2 billion reform package that was supposed to make childcare more affordable for up to one million families...

Budget 2016: Working parents lose out as subsidy put on ice
The Courier Mail - Renee Viellaris - May 3, 2016

WORKING parents face paying more out-of-pocket child care fees after the Turnbull Government put its much-spruiked "fairer" subsidy on ice for a year. Blaming an obstructionist Senate, the Government's Budget revealed its $3.2 billion reforms aimed at making childcare more affordable for one...

Aussie breeders left out in the cold
Herald Sun - Susie O'Brien - May 3, 2016

The Government says it is still committed to the Jobs for Families Package unveiled in last year's budget, but there's no detail on how it plans to get this through the Senate. This effectively leaves parents in limbo: unable to plan for the future, and without any clear idea about what family payment...

Budget Delay for Families Package is Chance to Get It Right
Probono Australia - May 3, 2016

Peak body Early Childhood Australia (ECA) has said the deferral of the Jobs for Families Package in the budget provides an opportunity to "get the package right". The package has been delayed by a year until 1 July 2018 after family tax benefit reforms, required to fund the child care package...

Federal Budget 2016: Treasurer Scott Morrison to woo women back to work
The Courier Mail - Renee Viellaris - May 3, 2016

The Treasurer''s first Budget and foundation for the July 2 election will unlock billions of dollars to help women return to the workforce, provide flexible subsidised childcare, offer tax incentives for "mum-preneurs" and help better their retirement nest eggs. The pitch, to start today and build until the...

Family day care centres have almost doubled in the southeast to address vacancies for children under two
Daily Telegraph - Rebecca Franks - May 2, 2016

THERE has been an explosion of family day care centres springing up across the southeast in response to a shortage of vacancies for children under two. Since 2013, the number of centres providing at home care for groups of four children under five has almost doubled in Maroubra, Matraville, Randwick...

Where are they now? Tracking down the promises of budgets past
The Conversation - Danielle Wood and William Young - May 2, 2016

Family payments were one of the few major spending areas the government had not promised to shield from cuts before it was elected in 2013. So, cuts in the 2014-15 budget were not unexpected. The changes, which included freezing increases in payments to compensate for inflation and ceasing...

Calls to speed up childcare changes ahead of federal budget
SBS News - Omar Dabbagh - May 2, 2016

Lobby groups initially welcomed the changes, but said they won't come in for another two financial years. The Australian Childcare Alliance's Paul Mondo said that means families will continue to suffer financially. "Realistically, parents need support now and the parents are hurting now,"...