Centres are currently seeing a surge in demand while free care lasts. But when fees are reintroduced, many parents are expected to withdraw their children from care. Unemployed parents will no longer be eligible for subsidised childcare under reforms to the system, introduced a few years back, which mandated a stringent work "activity" test.
No child deserves the uncertainty of being put into care and withdrawn from week to week. Children, as we know, thrive on routine. And all the best international evidence we have suggests they also thrive on the early learning opportunities that childcare presents. No one is saying babies should be ripped from their mothers bosom and forced to learn maths. Of course, families must make decisions for themselves about how best to care for their babies and infants in a way that balances their family's need for income and a mother's desire to return to work. But the past two decades have seen a radical shift in the choices Australian families are making, and they're only heading in one direction.
An easier option, says Danielle Wood of the Grattan Institute, would be for the government to phase back in an expanded subsidy scheme, one which suspends – at least temporarily – the work activity test and increases the maximum rate of subsidy from 85 to 95 per cent of out of pocket costs. This would cost about an extra $5 billion a year.
Jess_Irvine C-Virus should have never happened & Could've been stopped at the source
Jess_Irvine More parents choosing to look after their own kids and not make them someone else’s responsibility?
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