Child Care News
Bid to kick stay-at-home mums out of childcare
Sunday Telegraph - Samantha Maiden - July 13, 2014STAY-at-home mums face cuts to cheap childcare under a reform push designed to ensure working parents are the first priority for taxpayer-funded subsidies. Childcare Minister Sussan Ley said one of the reasons working parents struggle to find a childcare place for babies and toddlers is that…
Battle to recruit childcare teachers
The West Australian - Bethany Hiatt - July 11, 2014WA childcare centres are struggling to compete with schools to hire qualified teachers, six months after rules came into force requiring them to employ more university-trained early childhood teachers. Under Federal Government requirements introduced in January, all long daycare...
G8 pays $25.7m for 19 childcare centres
Financial Review - Jessica Gardner - July 9, 2014G8 Education chairman Jenny Hutson says the childcare outfit has no plans to slow down its aggressive centre roll-up and the arrival of a listed rival has not hurt the company's ability to find and buy good quality operators. The Gold Coast business has added 19 centres to its growing...
It is childcare costs, not paid leave, that is confronting new parents
Sydney Morning Herald - Jonathan Hastie - July 8, 2014There is a growing divide between the reality of raising a family and the political language associated with it. Paid parental leave is an excellent example of this, and recent calls by the Centre for Independent Studies to replace it with a HECS-style loan scheme demonstrate how...
Bank battle over ABC Learning finally settled
Sydney Morning Herald - Clancy Yeates - July 8, 2014Australia's big banks have finally settled in a legal battle over a move that put them at the front of the creditor queue when childcare giant ABC Learning collapsed in 2008. Litigation funder Bentham IMF on Monday said it had settled with seven lenders for an undisclosed sum over a charge the...
G8 Education to buy 19 childcare centres for $25.7m
MyWealth - Emily Guterres - July 8, 2014G8 Education (GEM) has maintained its aggressive expansion strategy with the purchase of another 19 childcare and education centres for approximately $25.7m. The Queensland based childcare operator will purchase the new centres from a number of different vendors and will fund the deals...
Childcare centres fail to stay open late due to lack of demand
The Age - Miki Perkins - July 7, 2014Round-the-clock childcare centres would be neither practical nor in demand, according to a nationwide childcare survey. Despite Prime Minister Tony Abbott's call for childcare centres to provide greater flexibility for the "24/7 economy", less than 1 per cent of centres are open after...
'Replace paid parental leave with loan scheme', says Centre for Independent Studies
The Australian - Rick Moreton - July 7, 2014TONY Abbott should abandon his "unfair" paid parental leave scheme and replace it with a loan scheme similar to HECS at scarcely more than one-tenth the cost, according to a proposal from a libertarian think tank. Centre for Independent Studies research fellow Matthew Taylor wrote the...
CBA led banks' charge on ABC Learning
The Age - Michael West - July 7, 2014The banks did a sneaky thing as Eddy Groves' childcare empire was teetering at the precipice of collapse in 2008, a thing which may begin to unravel in proceedings before the Federal Court on Monday morning. Led by Commonwealth Bank, the syndicate took a charge over $1.25 billion in...
Government rejects Liberal Democrat Senator's call for complete deregulation of childcare sector
ABC News - Andrew Greene - July 5, 2014The Government has ruled out complete deregulation of the childcare sector after a crossbench senator suggested the idea to help combat the affordability crisis. Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm wants to see fewer checks and rules around childcare, particularly when children are...
Asbestos fears close Goodstart childcare centre in Aranda
Canberra Times - Jil Hogan - July 5, 2014The Goodstart Early Learning childcare centre in Aranda has been closed for a week after an asbestos risk was identified on Thursday night. During a routine check to the building, which has asbestos in it, pinholes and nail holes were detected in the walls. ACT Work Safety Commissioner...
Department of Education investigation cases of childcare fraud in Australia
NEWS.com.au - July 5, 2014THE federal government is investigating fresh allegations members of some ethnic communities are rorting the family daycare system to pocket generous taxpayer funded subsidies. News Corp Australia has confirmed the federal Department of Education's compliance team is investigating...
Uncertainty about kinder funding causes headaches for Victorian families
ABC News - Stephanie Ferrier - July 5, 2014Victoria has promised to continue funding 10 hours of kinder every week for four-year-old children next year. But the Federal Government is waiting on the results of a review before deciding whether to fund an extra five hours per week. An independent report was due by the end of June...
Bold, brave plan needed for childcare, says Sussan Ley
The Australian - Rick Moreton and Patricia Karvelas - July 4, 2014ASSISTANT Education Minister Sussan Ley wants the Productivity Commission to deliver a "bold and brave" blueprint for the future of childcare that radically departs from the current, broken system. Ms Ley would not directly comment on revelations in The Australian that the...
Childcare solutions: Nannies and means testing need safeguards
Sydney Morning Herald - July 4, 2014A single means-tested government payment to parents for formal, family-based and even nanny-delivered childcare makes sense on the face of it. A Productivity Commission report due this month will argue for just such a scheme by telling parents what they already know. It is often too hard...
