Has anyone seen the plans for childcare reform put out ahead of the budget? https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-02/childcare-subsidies-bolstered-in-federal-budget/100110346 My sister has a toddler and is expecting twins so this will make a huge difference for their family, she’s been worrying about how she will afford to return to work. We are down to 1 in childcare now so won’t effect my family but I’m glad to see they are finally doing something. What do you think of the proposed changes?

I’ve just been reading about this so don’t have a lot of detail but this looks good. I’m past that age -DS is 15 now- but had this been in place when DS was younger, I might have been able to consider a second child.

Im interested in the detail. They sure did a number last time did a reform. It really is a problem that profits come first though. I heard stories about educators having to buy supplies from their own pay packets during.covid when there were spending freezes. I’m interested to know if the ceo who earns something like $750,000 took a pay cut at all, or bought their own pen paper, or if it was just those that earn a paltry amount… (steps off soapbox…)

These bozos dicked around with childcare recently didn’t they? I don’t have children that age anymore, so I don’t know how successful their last change was. They have such a bad track record, I shudder when I see these headlines. Good luck everyone.

A quarter of a million families will benefit - they say. There are about 940 thousand families using childcare (and are eligible for CCS) currently. So this policy will benefit 26% of families using childcare? And I wonder - Does the older child have to be in long day care for this second kid discount to be in place, or will other types of care be sufficient? What about people with kids in OSHC? Presumably the younger child won’t be at the higher rebate for their LDC with their older sibling at ASC three afternoons a week? So then what? Both kids are back in the same CCS they would be now? For families like ours, this would have benefitted us for about 1.5 of the nearly 7 years we’ve been using childcare. And I think we’re reasonably average (2 kids, 3 years apart). ** This will be wonderful for those families who can use it. For sure. I just don’t think it goes anywhere near far enough, and it’s a bit sneaky - sounds really great on the face of it but most families won’t benefit at all, and those that do may not benefit for long (only applies when kids are in childcare at the same time). And call me cynical but it’s not coming into place until after the election? So they get to use it as a carrot for votes, but never have to actually put their money where their mouth is unless re-elected? At which point they will no doubt double back with some excuse for why they can’t do it and have 3 odd years for everyone to forget about yet another broken promise. ** edited to add: This (the bit about our family) is not to say I begrudge any other family more affordable childcare than we had - certainly not! We made it through fine and I’m grateful for what help we got. I want BETTER for those coming after us.

Childcare reform