News
Families look for childcare alternatives as unease rises
23+ hour, 7+ min ago (925+ words) June 22, 2026 " 5: 00am Clare Taheri intended to take six months off for the birth of her daughter before returning to work and study as psychologist. But when Taheri set out with newborn daughter Persephone to tour childcare facilities near their Elsternwick home,…...
$3. 6 billion childcare pay deal staves off pay cuts, fee hikes and a strike
6+ day, 6+ hour ago (709+ words) June 16, 2026 " 10: 00pm Tens of thousands of childcare workers will avoid pay cuts after the Albanese government agreed to double its $3. 6 billion election pledge to prop up early educator salaries, due to expire this year. Funding for the two-year deal to give…...
Qld to get new centralised child protection commission
6+ day, 14+ hour ago (363+ words) June 16, 2026 " 1: 51pm The Queensland government will set up a new child protection commission to centralise a patchwork of safeguard functions that failed to stop the actions of the state's worst childcare paedophile. Attorney-General Deb Frecklington outlined a key plank of the…...
Cash, WFH, childcare overhaul? If we want Australians to have more babies, everything needs to change
1+ week, 5+ day ago (1755+ words) Australians who want to have a child, or want more children, are asking for solutions. Can we, as a nation, help them? If there is one thing western Sydney mother Reshmi would like to give her one-year-old son, Adrian, it…...
Coalition retreats from scheme to give parents vouchers for nannies
1+ week, 6+ day ago (613+ words) June 9, 2026 " 12: 00pm The Coalition will consider increasing the tax-free threshold for parents, allowing tax deductions for childcare costs, or enabling income splitting as it retreats from an early suggestion it could overhaul the childcare system by introducing vouchers for nannies. Opposition…...
Raising a child today costs as much as a small mortgage " and that's before you put education on the tab
2+ week, 19+ hour ago (1442+ words) June 8, 2026 " 5: 00am A newborn may be little larger than a shoebox, but the cost of caring for that child to adulthood is akin to a home mortgage. From boxes of nappies to the challenges of feeding a teenager with seemingly hollow…...
Measure of failure: $20m inquiry slams Queensland child safety crisis
2+ week, 5+ day ago (811+ words) June 3, 2026 " 7: 49pm Queensland's child safety inquiry has called for sweeping overhauls of what it described as a failing state system, including controversial shifts to adoption practices and state-run out-of-home care. The $20 million commission of inquiry under Paul Anastassiou, a Crisafulli government…...
Queensland parliament live: Inquiry's report into child safety released
2+ week, 5+ day ago (108+ words) Another day of state parliament begins with the tabling of a report of the inquiry into Queensland's child safety system. State parliament has kicked off again for the second day this week, with an afternoon sitting as per typical Wednesday…...
Parents warned as national childcare strike looms
1+ mon, 18+ hour ago (47+ words) The Age Around 20, 000 early childcare workers could walk off the job on July 15 amid calls for the federal government to fund a 15 per cent pay rise. Updated May 22, 2026 " 9: 44am, first published 9: 42am...
Australia's largest private child care operator slashes 40 centres
1+ mon, 3+ week ago (491+ words) April 29, 2026 " 12: 43pm Australia's largest private childcare centre operator, G8 Education, is planning to close up to 40 centres " nearly 10 per cent of its local operations " in response to an ongoing occupancy slump, rising costs and the fallout from last year's childcare sex abuse…...