Child Care News

Commission says cut PPL and Family Tax Benefit B, pay for nannies
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - May 1, 2014

TONY Abbott's paid parental leave (PPL) scheme should be capped at average weekly earnings - around $28,000 for six months - and the savings redirected to help parents pay for childcare, including the use of nannies to help boost female participation in work. The Commission of Audit...

Rise in number of preschoolers sexually abusing peers, University of South Australia expert says
ABC News - Lorna Knowles and Alison McClymont - April 30, 2014

A leading child protection expert has warned of a rise in the number of young children sexually abusing their peers in preschool and primary schools across Australia. Professor Freda Briggs of the University of South Australia has told the ABC that children as young as five are displaying...

Millionaire mums to keep cash with no change planned for Coalition's child rebate
NEWS.com.au - April 30, 2014

MILLIONAIRE parents will continue to receive taxpayer-funded childcare as the Abbott Government admitted yesterday that the system "was not supporting modern-day" families. Just a day before Treasurer Joe Hockey's Commission of Audit is expected to savage the generous payments...

Keep Our Kids safe campaign aims to lift vaccination rates for Queensland's indigenous children
NEWS.com.au - April 30, 2014

VACCINATION rates for indigenous children are at dangerously low levels across the state, with not a single area recording an immunisation rate above 90 per cent by the time children are one year old, figures show. Health experts have warned the rates - as low as 82 per cent in areas such as...

Childhood 'Game Changer' Looks To Multi-Sector Consortium
Pro Bono Australia - April 30, 2014

A new national initiative, known as Opportunity Child, is to be launched in Sydney tomorrow, in a bid to reduce early childhood vulnerability in 20 Australian communities over the next 10 years. The initiative aims to build a $30 million capital fund that leverages contributions from community...

Childcare vacancies increase in Australia's richest suburbs
NEWS.com.au - April 29, 2014

PARENTS in some of Australia’s richest suburbs are benefiting from a spike in the number of childcare vacancies, with centre places growing at twice rate of the population of newborns to four-year-olds. But mums and dads living in the country's poorer pockets are unlikely to see much...

G8 Education dismisses vote against executive pay
Financial Review - Jessica Gardner - April 29, 2014

Owning shares in the best-performing stock among the top 200 companies in the local bourse was not reward enough for almost one in five G8 Education investors, who voted against the ­salaries paid to the childcare operator's top executives in 2013. At the company's annual general meeting...

G8 Education expansion continues
Finance News Network - April 29, 2014

Queensland based childcare operator G8 Education Limited (ASX:GEM) has confirmed it has conditional contractual arrangements to acquire up to 154 new childcare and education centres by the end of September this year. Since the start of the 2014 G8 has bought 64 new centres from...

Childcare shortage a hurdle for paid parental leave
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - April 29, 2014

THE nation's biggest childcare provider says mutual obligation provisions requiring women to return to work after taking money from Tony Abbott's paid parental leave scheme could fail because of the shortage of care places for ­babies and toddlers. Good Start Learning chief executive Julia...

Tony Abbott's $100,000 welfare test for families
The Australian - David Crowe - April 29, 2014

FAMILIES will lose access to taxpayer benefits under a hard-line plan to slash budget spending as Tony Abbott signals a new income threshold of $100,000 to determine who gets "handouts" from Canberra. Social security payments will be scaled back and eligibility rules tightened in a bid to...

Australians' private government details at mercy of hackers, say IT security experts
The Age - Ben Grubb and Noel Towell - April 28, 2014

The private records of millions of Australians – including their doctor visits, prescription drugs, childcare and welfare payments – are at the mercy of cyber criminals because of flimsy IT security around a critical federal government website, IT security experts warn. And they say the risk will...

Foreign granny au pairs being blocked from Australia as there is no visa to accommodate them
Sunday Telegraph - Jane Hansen - April 26, 2014

THEY are a grey army, ready and willing to take care of your kids, but foreign granny au pairs are being blocked from plugging the nation's childcare gap because there is no visa to accommodate them. Traditionally the domain of young foreign travellers, an au pair can be a cost-effective...

Care for poorest 'should be free', says Children''s Commissioner
The Australian - Natasha Bita - April 26, 2014

DYSFUNCTIONAL families should get free childcare to give kids a safe haven from neglectful homes, National Children's Commissioner Megan Mitchell said yesterday. Ms Mitchell said childcare must not be a middle-class privilege, as poor or neglected children, as well as Aboriginal and...

Welfare needs a total overhaul
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - April 25, 2014

While the results of the Productivity Commission's review of childcare will not be known in time for this year's budget, the Prime Minister has rightly grasped that this issue is the ­present generation's new barbecue stopper. But we are getting mixed messages on childcare. The government has...

Mums must come back to work
The Australian - Phillip Hudson - April 25, 2014

MUTUAL obligation conditions will be placed on the government's paid parental leave scheme to require women to return to work as Joe Hockey tries to make the controversial policy part of a wider jobs compact. There will also be a campaign to encourage employers to change their...