Child Care News
Clubs offer childcare in exchange for pokie profit tax break
Sydney Morning Herald - Kirsty Needham - September 14, 2014More than 1000 licensed clubs can fill the childcare shortfall by opening childcare centres on their premises in exchange for tax breaks on poker machine profits, Clubs Australia has told the Productivity Commission. Clubs Australia executive director Anthony Ball has written to the commission's…
Childcare cash crisis to hit thousands of Victorian families hard
Herald Sun - Christophe Gillett - September 14, 2014THOUSANDS of parents could be left without childcare if sweeping changes to family day care are introduced by the Federal Government. Local councils have started sending letters warning fees could jump as much as $1700 yearly for each child. Yarra Ranges Council and Monash are even...
Aboriginal family and children's centres in limbo
Sydney Morning Herald - Julie Power - September 14, 2014The future of some of the most disadvantaged children across Australia is now in limbo, following the federal government's withdrawal of funding from 38 Aboriginal Child and Family Centres. "We are in no man's land. No one wants to take ownership," said Catherine Edwards-Bott, the executive...
Time and money make the case for au pairs
Financial Review - Jacquie Hayes - September 13, 2014What a bonus it can be to have help with the children. It's invaluable to have an extra set of hands around to help manage the groceries, meals, school and sport pick-ups, maintain domestic order and keep the children on an even keel when things get hectic (and even when they're not). With hired...
Families avoid huge childcare fees by sending kids to school early
Daily Telegraph - Bruce McDougall - September 13, 2014PARENTS are enrolling four-year-olds at school before they are ready to avoid out-of-pocket childcare costs - which have soared as high as $12,000 a year. Teachers say some of the new entrants - as young as four years and six months - are unable to hold a pencil properly, use a pair of scissors or...
We must take risks to fix joblessness
The Australian - Cassandra Wilkinson - September 13, 2014IN 2008 the world's largest childcare provider, ABC Learning, went into voluntary liquidation. With 660 childcare centres about to close and thousands of kids and their families stranded, Social Ventures Australia chief executive Michael Traill pulled together a $165 million social investment deal to...
Infants front and centre: Perkins Architects' Boorai childcare facility at Ocean Grove
The Age - Stephen Crafti - September 13, 2014Ian Perkins, director of Perkins Architects, has been designing childcare and early learning centres since the mid-1980s. With almost 100 centres completed, many of which are in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Perkins has seen their development and growth, as well as their changes over the...
Surge in fee relief outstrips growth in childcare usage
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - September 12, 2014THE number of kids in childcare grew by 8.5 per cent last year, but spending on government subsidies for childcare fees increased at more than twice that rate. An extra 90,000 kids were placed in childcare in the 12 months to the December quarter last year, but the Abbott government has expressed…
Au pairs should have more visa options and minimum payment level, says industry group
Sydney Morning Herald - Judith Ireland - September 12, 2014Au pairs coming to Australia should have more visa options and a minimum payment level, the peak body for the au pair industry has argued. The Productivity Commission has made a draft recommendation that the federal government should simplify working holiday visa requirements to…
Child care: Increasing demand for au pairs as shift workers seek flexible arrangements
ABC News - Linda Skates - September 12, 2014The demand for child care outside traditional working hours is on the rise and outstripping supply in Western Australia. Many families that have both parents employed are increasingly having to juggle childcare arrangements. Shift work and fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) rosters means looking for alternative…
Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest's plea for indigenous Australia: Early childhood the key for change
Daily Telegraph - Matt Bamford - September 11, 2014MINING magnate Andrew Forrest has called on all Australians to finally end the disparity between indigenous and non-indigenous - and said early childhood is the key for change. "I grew up with Aboriginal people, they were my mentors … they certainly taught me the things I hold dear now,"…
Affinity buys 20 more child care centres
The Age - September 11, 2014Affinity Education Group Limited (ASX:AFJ) enters into agreements to buy another 20 more child care centres for about $19 million. The provider of education and childcare services says the latest acquisitions will boost its total portfolio to 140 centres. Affinity Education Group expects the…
Pre-school report cards: Parents concerned children in NSW could be unfairly ranked
ABC News - Claire Aird - September 11, 2014Parents in New South Wales have expressed concern that a new report card for pre-school children moving into primary school could be used to rank students. The State Government introduced the new "transition to school" statement, which asks early childcare teachers and family to appraise a…
Higher wages 'to hit families'
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - September 11, 2014CHILDCARE workers seeking higher wages will have a severe impact on families, especially if more money is not spent helping parents paying higher fees, a leading childcare group has warned. The Australian Childcare Alliance, which represents private providers, says proposed workforce...
It's time to make haste quickly
Financial Review - Jennifer Hewett - September 11, 2014It also includes greater government support for "adequate and accessible childcare" with Livingstone arguing this is crucial if both parents are going to work. And like the rest of business, she is far less enthusiastic about the government's paid parental leave scheme, saying she would "absolutely"...
