Child Care News
Rich lose most in childcare shake-up
The West Australian - Andrew Probyn - November 30, 2015Rich families will be about $2250 a year worse off for every child they have in child care under a shake-up that increases support for families on incomes below $170,000. Under a new means-testing approach to child care to go before Parliament this week, a single subsidy will replace a complex system...
Grandparents exempt from childcare changes
Sydney Morning Herald - Stephanie Peatling - November 30, 2015Labor and the Greens have called on the government to release the details of its childcare package which will see a tougher means test applied to high income families receiving taxpayer assistance for the costs of childcare. The government will introduce legislation into Parliament later this week...
Anti-vaxxers offer black market babysitting
Courier Mail - Rose Brennan - November 30, 2015ANTI-VAXXERS are going underground, setting up black market child care in a new dangerous trend that has shocked health authorities. The parents, who refuse to vaccinate their children, are skirting new state and federal laws that mean they lose childcare rebates if vaccines aren’t up to date...
Nannies trained to recognise depression
Sky News - November 29, 2015Australian nannies are being taught how to identify parents struggling with post-natal depression. Hundreds of nannies descended on Melbourne over the weekend for Australia's first ever nanny convention. Australian Nanny Association president Annemarie Sansom said it was important that...
Childcare changes get a lukewarm response
SBS News - November 29, 2015The Turnbull government will have a tough time getting through parliament childcare reforms it says will leave the average family $30 a week better off. Education Minister Simon Birmingham says the package to be introduced during this week's final parliamentary sitting of the year is a generous....
Grandparent carers to get access to subsidised child care under changes planned by Government
ABC News - Julie Doyle - November 29, 2015Grandparents will have more access to government-subsidised child care while payments to high-income earners will be scaled back under a revised package to go before Federal Parliament this week.Under the new package all grandparents who are primary carers will be exempt from the child care...
Samantha Maiden: Parents who lose all childcare benefits have a right to spit dummy
The Sunday Telegraph - Samantha Maiden - November 29, 2015IT'S a surprising statistic: One in four parents using childcare in Australia don't have a job. The biggest group - 156,000 - are stay-at-home parents. These are not single parents, but are living with partners, husbands, or indeed wives, who work. It's easy to look at those statistics and say those families...
Special childcare help for parents on irregular hours under Turnbull plan
Sydney Morning Herald - Adam Gartrell - November 28, 2015Special arrangements will be put in place to ensure parents who work irregular hours - such as shift workers and fly-in, fly-out workers - don't miss out on the Turnbull government's new childcare subsidy. Fairfax Media understands the government is finalising work on protections to make sure that...
Students to be protected if Vocation private training colleges close, minister says
ABC News - November 27, 2015The move affects about 12,000 students across the country, including 2,000 in Victoria. Vocation was forced to recall more than 1,000 of its qualifications, including hundreds in child care and aged care, after Victorian regulators found the courses were substandard. It is understood the company...
Hand schooling and childcare over to states, says Jay Weatherill
The Australian - Michael Owen - November 27, 2015Under the proposal to be announced in detail today, state governments would have responsibility for children from birth to the end of secondary school, with the federal government in charge of everything beyond, such as universities, vocational education and training. The proposal will be presented...
Baby death stops family care service
The Courier Mail - David Murray - November 27, 2015A SERVICE overseeing 60 family daycare educators has been suspended following the death of a five-month-old boy in a run-down Brisbane home last week. Police are understood to have found at least six children under school age at the family daycare house in Wallace St, Moorooka, where the...
Australian childcare system among world's most expensive: OECD
The Australian - Natasha Bita - November 25, 2015Australia's childcare system is one of the most expensive in the industrialised world, with toddlers and preschoolers costing more to educate than school students, a new OECD report shows. The OECD education report, released in Paris last night, shows that Australia lags the rest of the developed world...
Preschool hours funding dispute settled, SA children entitled to 15 hours per week
ABC News - November 24, 2015Four-year-old South Australian children will remain entitled to two-and-a-half days per week of government-funded preschool next year, after a funding dispute between the state and federal governments was settled. The South Australian Government has accepted the Commonwealth's formal offer...
'Your kids are not our problem': Senator David Leyonhjelm lets fly over Australia's 'obsession' with families
News.com.au - November 24, 2015LIBERAL Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm believes it's unfair for childless Australians to be subsidising the lifestyles of those who choose to have "little blighters". Speaking in support of legislation which would strip childcare and other benefits from parents who don't immunise their children...
Flexibility key to reforming childcare sector
The Courier Mail - Trisha Jha - November 24, 2015But there is no question that centres could be doing more to accommodate parents' and children's needs. At the very least, part-time blocks that fit neatly into the fulltime day - four or six hours for centres open for 12 hours; five for centres open for 10 - have the capacity to better suit parents' different work...
