Child Care News
Childcare reforms 'will shut centres'
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - April 14, 2011THREE Gillard government ministers have been warned that childcare centres across the nation will collapse unless reforms to increase staff-child ratios are stalled. The ministers were called on by the Child Care National Association to postpone...
Childcare staff seek 50pc pay hike
The Australian - Natasha Bita - April 13, 2011CHILDCARE workers will seek a 50 per cent pay rise this year, their union revealed yesterday, as it accused centre owners of profiteering from parents. The United Voice union is planning a long-term industrial campaign to dovetail with new government regulations...
Subsidy cut put off -- at least until July
The Australian - Sue Dunlevy - April 13, 2011THE government has been forced to back down on a 2010 budget cut to childcare that would have slashed $278 a year from parents' subsidies this year because it cannot get the change through the Senate. However, the reprieve for parents will be brief as the government...
Childcare changes take effect ahead of schedule
Sydney Morning Herald - Adele Horin - April 13, 2011NEW national childcare standards will be implemented sooner than expected despite controversy over the cost, a leading educator says. The chief executive of Early Childhood Australia, Pam Cahir, said four states, including NSW, had already implemented...
Push to axe 'childcare' PC gone mad
Herald Sun - Matt Johnston - April 13, 2011Child Care National Association president Chris Buck said families wanted affordable care, not political correctness "gone mad". He said the focus should be on rewarding staff, and training more, rather than on paying for new letterheads. "The thought police have had a brain snap...
Families fear their tax breaks will go
The Australian - Sean Parnell and Siobhain Ryan - April 12, 2011If the childcare tax rebate were also means-tested, cutting out at $150,000, about 64,000 families would miss out, but it would provide up to $505 million in savings each year. A spokesman for Mr Swan would say only that "as always, there will be plenty...
Lapses in childcare are unacceptable
Herald Sun - April 11, 2011IT appears more and more likely that serious reforms will be made in the monitoring of childcare services in this state. But as our special investigation reports today, they can't come quickly enough. Serious lapses by childcare centres, as highlighted...
Dodgy carers slip through the net
Herald Sun - Carly Crawford, Elissa Doherty - April 11, 2011ONLY four childcare centres a year are being prosecuted in Victoria, despite hundreds of kids being lost and smacked. A Herald Sun investigation has found the Education Department has prosecuted just 45 centres from about 30,000 inspections in the...
A childcare fall leads to anxious wait
Herald Sun - Elissa Doherty - April 11, 2011ANDREW and Donna Iezzi face years of uncertainty after their little boy fell off a change table at a Melbourne childcare centre. They anxiously wonder if bouts of vomiting or restless nights stem from the injuries he sustained on October 28, 2009...
OECD slams hostility to foreign investment
The Australian - David Uren - April 8, 2011It said childcare benefits should be made more conditional on employment and job search, while they should also be restructured to be more generous for families with very young children. It said over the longer term, as the budget allowed, there should...
A head start for children at risk
The Daily Telegraph - Joe Hildebrand - April 8, 2011THE state''s leading network of early childhood and early intervention care centres has called on the State Government to fund free preschooling for children in disadvantaged areas. SDN Children''s Services has thrown its support behind the campaign for...
ACOSS seeks end to middle-class welfare
Ninemsn - Susanna Dunkerley - April 7, 2011The nation's peak welfare group has urged the federal government to take an axe to middle-class welfare payments including childcare and private health rebates. The Australian Council of Social Services' (ACOSS) federal budget submission also calls for...
Child payments in Budget sights
The West Australian - Shane Wright and Kim Macdonald - April 7, 2011A focus is on family and childcare payments, with Treasury convinced that the complexity of the payments results in lower levels of workforce participation, especially among women between 25 and 54. Julia Gillard has made clear the Budget will be about...
Preschool robbery - early-learning charges hitting NSW parents hardest
The Daily Telegraph - Letitia Rowlands - April 7, 2011NSW parents pay hundreds of dollars a week for their child's preschool education while families in other states have access to early learning for free or at little charge. An Australian Bureau of Statistics report released this week shows 6161 families ...
Childcare centres fail health rules
The West Australian - Megan Bailey - April 7, 2011Dozens of WA childcare centres are putting children at risk of sickness by failing to meet basic hygiene and disease control standards, according to inspectors. National Childcare Accreditation Council inspectors visited 95 of the 476 childcare centres...
