Child Care News
Greens target tots, teeth and solar power
Sydney Morning Herald - Josephine Tovey - March 14, 2011The party also pledged to provide two years' free preschool education for every child, a program targeting 10,000 children in its first stage at a cost of $128 million, and to boost dental care funding by $102.5 million...
Childcare reforms will cost us more
The Daily Telegraph - March 13, 2011The answer, according to the government, is more staff and demands more university educated workers are employed by childcare centres. That may improve care, but it will also drive up the cost, which in many capital cities is already over $100 a day...
New My School-style website to name and shame poorly-performing childcare centres
Daily Telegraph - Samantha Maiden - March 13, 2011CHILDCARE centres that fail to meet basic hygiene and safety standards will be named and shamed on a My School- style government website from next year. The Sunday Telegraph can reveal a new rating system will allow parents to compare...
Wake-up call for childcare centres
Herald Sun - Elissa Doherty - March 12, 2011Childcare centres not meeting required standards will be named on a website from next year. PARENTS are leaving hundreds of children in childcare services that do not meet quality standards...
Push to put lone parents in jobs
The West Australian - Andrew Tillett - March 9, 2011Families Minister Jenny Macklin has also been urged in secret advice by her department to consider increasing childcare assistance at the expense of family payments to stay-at-home mums in a bid to get more mothers into the workforce...
Childhood boost for indigenous families
Adelaide Now - Lucy Hood - March 9, 2011NEW early-childhood centres will be opened in Whyalla, Ceduna and Christies Beach to improve the quality of life for indigenous families. School Education Minister Peter Garrett yesterday announced the locations of three Aboriginal Children and...
Black in the dark on ABC's accounts
The Age - Colin Kruger and Leonie Lamont - March 8, 2011A PUBLIC examination into ABC Learning's collapse heard yesterday how its most senior financial executive had no access to the financial accounts of its operations. James Black, ABC's chief financial officer until April 2008, told the Federal Court he had...
81-year-old drives into childcare centre
The Age - Maris Beck - March 3, 2011FOUR toddlers have been taken to hospital after a man drove into a cubbyhouse at a childcare centre in the Latrobe Valley. The man crashed into the playground of Early Learning Centre in Albert Street, Moe, yesterday afternoon, as children were playing...
Funding grants open for regional Aussies
Sydney Morning Herald - March 3, 2011Residents in regional Australia can now apply for a share in $1 billion to build essential structures like bridges and childcare centres in their area. Applications to access the Regional Development Australia Fund open on Thursday, with project...
Whooping cough vaccination rates a worry
Sydney Morning Herald - Danny Rose - March 3, 2011"Uptake for the H1N1 vaccine was higher among at-risk groups, particularly healthcare providers and childcare workers (26 per cent)," Mr Cooper-Stanbury said. The AIHW surveyed more than 10000 adult Australians to compile adult vaccination rates for...
Ex-Abacus head of funds management resurfaces
InvestorDaily - Wouter Klijn - March 3, 2011Former Abacus Property Group head of funds management Tom Hardwick has resurfaced as the chief executive of childcare business Redstone Group. Redstone Group runs a childcare business that owns about 20 businesses and a management company called Guardian...
ABC Learning co-founder seeking huge tax refund
The Australian - Natasha Bita - March 03, 2011Le Neve Groves, the co-founder of collapsed childcare chain ABC Learning, is seeking a multi-million-dollar tax refund after allegedly failing to pay her 2008 tax bill estimated at more than $11 million. The Federal Court in Brisbane yesterday began...
Wages slashed despite Julia Gillard's promise
Herald Sun - Steve Lewis - March 2, 2011One of Australia's most senior union leaders has revealed childcare workers, aged care nurses and bar staff in licensed clubs have lost entitlements, because of sweeping workplace reforms that cut the number of industrial awards from more than 2000 to...
Childcare centre fined over young wanderer
The West Australian - Angela Pownall - March 1, 2011A major childcare group, whose managing director is president of WA's childcare industry body, has admitted letting a two-year-old boy escape unnoticed and wander up to 75m from one of its centres. It was only when John McAlister arrived to pick up son ...
Economic growth just a spectator sport for low-paid workers
Sydney Morning Herald - Louise Tarrant - March 1, 2011They are the childcare professionals we entrust with our children and the aged-care workers we rely on to preserve the dignity of our frail parents. They are the friendly faces across the bar and the anonymous teams who sweep through our offices...
