Child Care News

Greens prepared to talk on child care
News.com.au - May 14, 2015

THE Greens are prepared to negotiate the government's overhaul of child care support through the federal parliament. "THERE'S a lot we can work with on the childcare package," leader Richard Di Natale told ABC radio on Thursday. However the minor party doesn't support taking money...

Federal Budget 2015: Mums who volunteer can keep childcare
News.com.au - Lauren Wilson - May 13, 2015

STAY-at-home mums would need to undertake four hours of volunteer work a week to access three days of subsidised childcare under the Government’s new activity test. The measure, designed to ensure generous childcare subsidies operate as work incentives not welfare payments...

Abbott Government faces Senate blockage on Budget childcare and welfare reforms
Herald Sun - Annika Smethurst - May 13, 2015

THE Abbott Government is again facing the prospect of key parts of its Budget being held hostage in the Senate, as the crossbenchers line up to block billions of dollars of childcare and welfare reforms. The majority of crossbenchers support the $3.5 billion childcare overhaul - but said they...

Budget 2015: Families package punishes children
The Australian - Natasha Bita - May 13, 2015

But Tony Abbott’s families package is not child-friendly. The government will punish mothers financially if they can’t find a job, don’t have time to study or prefer to care for their own kids while they are young. It punishes single mothers, who will lose their FTB payments once their youngest...

Childcare subsidies to boost G8 Education
Financial Review - Elise Shaw - May 13, 2015

UBS rates G8 Education a "buy" with a 12-month price target at $6.22 a share with the government set to increase childcare subsidies. "The increase in funding includes a $2.1 billion increase in mainstream subsidisation (including GEM''s Long Day Care Centres), $0.8 billion extension in....

Federal budget 2015: Large families to lose out amid big boost to childcare funding
Brisbane Times - Judith Ireland - May 13, 2015

About 125,000 families will lose $320 a year, with a supplement for large families facing the chop in the federal budget. The Abbott government will save $177.3 million over four years by cutting an additional Family Tax Benefit payment that goes to big families. Big families at present qualify...

Budget 2015: Government to put $3.5 billion towards childcare while cutting paid parental leave "double dipping"
Smart Company - Cara Waters - My 12, 2015

The government has allocated an additional $3.5 billion to reform Australia’s childcare system in this year’s budget but it will also cut paid parental leave for some parents. "We want to give parents a choice about work, and by investing this money we are responding to the demands of...

Smoke, mirrors and another wasted opportunity
The Australian - Judith Sloan - May 12, 2015

Make no mistake, the government’s proposed jobs for families childcare package is about reeling in more votes. It represents another expansion in runaway spending on childcare and ensures that there are essentially no losers. Make no mistake, the government’s proposed jobs for families....

Childcare gets $4.4bn revamp
Courier Mail - Mitchell Neems - May 12, 2015

The centrepiece of this year’s budget is a $4.4 billion families package designed to help parents "juggle the demands of modern life." The key component of the package is a $3.5bn investment over five years in child care assistance. This includes a new streamlined, single childcare...

Focus on working parents misses true value of universal early childhood services
The Conversation - Eva Cox - May 12, 2015

The federal government is abandoning children’s rights to subsidised non-parental care. Apart from 15 hours preschool for four and five-year-olds, the newly announced childcare package focuses on pushing mothers into paid work or more paid work as a condition of subsidy - unless the child...

2015 budget: daycare juggling act to cost stay-at-home mums
The Australian - Natasha Bita - May 12, 2015

Middle-class mothers who stay home to care for young children but send older siblings to daycare are the biggest losers in the Abbott government’s "mummy wars" welfare reform. The Parenthood lobby group blasted the decision to axe all childcare subsidies for families earning more...

Budget 2015: Childcare package headed for Senate stoush; more public service cuts on the way
ABC News - Emma Griffiths, Eliza Borrello and Melissa Clarke - May 11, 2015

The Abbott Government has begun the sales job for its centrepiece childcare initiatives ahead of tomorrow night's budget, as the battle to have it passed by the split Senate crossbench begins. Social Services Minister Scott Morrison has done the rounds of morning TV programs to promote...

Stay-at-home mums out of pocket in child care assistance
Financial Review - Andrew Podger - May 11, 2015

But now the Social Services Minister, Scott Morrison, seems to want to remove any assistance for stay-at-home mothers in families with high incomes and to direct further money into child care (including nanny care) available only to working mothers and at all income levels...

Childcare changes will make availability even tougher
News.com.au - Kate Calacouras - May 11, 2015

The biggest problem with this scheme is it will force many women back to work earlier than they had planned - but there are no additional childcare places opening as part of the package. How are women supposed to return to their jobs if there is no one to care for their baby? I, like many...

Abbott's cash for households in generous budget
Sydney Morning Herald - Mark Kenny and Judith Ireland - May 11, 2015

The radical shake-up of childcare assistance is the centre-piece of a budget aimed at repairing the government's frayed relationship with middle-Australia and at refashioning financial support for young families to become a productivity enhancing tool. It will do that through a single...