Child Care News
The $250bn cost of Kevin Rudd: a tale of waste and spending
The Australian - Henry Ergas and Judith Sloan - August 3, 2013Childcare is a striking case in point, where the net effect of imposing an expensive national regulatory framework and upping the subsidies paid to parents using formal childcare centres has been an explosion of commonwealth spending. But while outlays have risen threefold and are...
Anger as the fun police take over
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - August 3, 2013THEY have been part of life for the past 40 years -- volunteer mums, dads, grandparents and their young children meeting each week at their local community playgroup. But they are under threat from a new model pushed by the Rudd government, which has taken control from families...
Childcare operators 'drowning in red tape'
Parramatta Sun - Nick Soon - August 2, 2013FEDERAL Opposition spokesman for Families, Housing and Human Services Kevin Andrews attacked the government for increased costs and shortages of qualified staff after promising to address childcare affordability in 2007. "There is great pressure on childcare centres to increase fees over...
Childcare centres get report card
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - August 2, 2013CHILDCARE centres in the most disadvantaged areas of Australia are just as likely to be rated "Exceeding" as those in areas of greatest social advantage. The Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority yesterday released its second "snapshot" showing how childcare centres...
The Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority says childcare centres are not meeting standards, rules bent for one in 20
News.com.au - Natasha Bita - August 02, 2013HUNDREDS of Australian childcare centres are looking after kids without the required space or staffing - and nearly half have flunked national quality standards. State and territory governments have bent the rules for 559 childcare centres - or nearly 5 per cent of the total - so they can stay...
Guaranteed daycare for under-threes starts in Germany
Deutsche Welle - July 31, 2013As of August 1, children in Germany aged one to three are guaranteed a spot in daycare. But there is a shortage of places, especially in the big cities. The new law allows parents to sue if they cannot get a place. From Thursday, parents in Germany have a legal right to a spot in a daycare center...
Childcare workers to get $118k for reading program translations
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - July 31, 2013CHILDCARE workers from non-English backgrounds will receive federal funding to translate the government's early learning framework being introduced across the country. The sector has a high number of workers, largely women, with poor English skills. Early Childhood and Child Care...
Three-year-olds face fund cuts
Sydney Morning Herald - Rachel Browne - July 31, 2013One-third of the state's community-based preschools face closure under a new funding model for early childhood education which strips funding for three-year-olds to focus greater resources on four- and five-year-olds. The model, to take effect next year, could also force fee rises of more...
States should chip in on childcare: oppn
Nine News - July 30, 2013Spokeswoman for childcare and early childhood learning Sussan Ley told a forum on Tuesday pay gaps were to blame for a "continual drain" of educators from childcare centres to preschools and primary schools. "Really what needs to happen is for state governments to pick up the...
The childcare-parental leave mishmash
Sydney Morning Herald - Michael Pascoe - July 30 , 2013So what's the point of the mishmash of present and proposed parental leave and childcare policies?Whether it's a highly discriminatory "big new tax" from Tony Abbott and the Greens, Labor's minimalist parental leave payments, the growing blowout in the means test-free childcare rebate...
Margie Abbott latest spouse in spotlight
News.com.au - July 29, 2013THE battle of the political spouses is heating up with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's wife Margie stepping into the spotlight to champion the coalition's child-care policy. Just a day after Kevin Rudd's wife Therese Rein made headlines as the first prime ministerial partner to visit...
Parents wait years for childcare
The Age - Henrietta Cook - July 29, 2013Frustrated parents are waiting more than two years for childcare places in inner Melbourne, according to a Greens report that reveals access to childcare is worsening in the city seat. A study by Adam Bandt, the federal Greens MP for Melbourne, found some centres had more than 300...
Gen Y gives up equal jobs fight
News.com.au - July 29, 2013YOUNGER women are rejecting the march towards equality in the workplace of their mothers, with research showing female progress in the labour market has stagnated for the first time in three generations. Women's employment rose sharply from the 1970s to the 1990s, but the data...
Why the wages of child-bearing should be voluntary
Financial Review - Alison Kahler - July 29, 2013A delicate issue has troubled me these past months – one so delicate that no doubt, when my thoughts are published, I will be shouted down as a reactionary, unmarried and barren woman. So here goes. I just don't get why anyone should get lengthy periods of paid paternity or maternity...
Our children are big business as Aussie parents spend up big on their kids
News.com.au - Lisa Cornish - July 27, 2013THE business of raising our children is now a $110 billion a year industry as Aussies spend up big to ensure their kids have it all. Splashing out on everything from childcare, baby products, schooling, clothes, food, trips to the dentist and, of course, birthday parties, parents have sparked an...
