The Government has broken its promise to make child care more affordable for Australian families, Labor says.
The Turnbull Government was forced to overhaul its $185 million nanny trial, which has seen nanny subsidies paid to just 60 families, according to a Fairfax report.
The families were paying an average of $35 an hour for the care.
Shadow Education and Early Childhood Minister Kate Ellis said the Government was out of touch when it came to childcare needs.
“This is not the solution for the majority of Australian families,” she said.
“When we have a look at the cost of a nanny, even with these subsidies, when we’re talking about costs of $35-an-hour, then clearly that is more than most families earn in an hour and that’s not the solution for them.”
The Government planned for up to 3,000 families to use this subsidised care. But so far only 60 families with 140 children have used nannies for an average of 20 hours a week.
Ms Ellis told ABC’s Barrie Cassidy on the Insiders program the Government was not sticking to its promises for affordable child care for all families.
“It’s a pretty clear example yet again of just how out of touch the Government are that they expect that this program is going to help your average family when families are being asked to pay $35 an hour for a nanny,” she said.
She claimed half of Australian families with an income of under $65,000 would be no better off under the Government’s proposed package.
“Evidence shows that where child care subsidies make the biggest difference in workforce participation is at the lower end of the income scale,” Ms Ellis said.
Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham told Fairfax the nanny trial was in its “early stages”.
“Matching of families in the pilot program with appropriate nannies is underway and will continue over coming months,” he said.
“We are committed to delivering additional flexibility to more Australian families — the pilot will help us to learn more about how best to structure longer-term support and engagement.”
The Government will also spend almost $800,000 to evaluate the nanny program.
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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Top Comments
Subsidies for Nannies never made any sense right from the start. (For most families) the only way having a nanny would be practical is if you can provide them a room to live in.
Not really. One nanny to look after multiple kids in your house while you are at work rather then pay child care fees for multiple children. No need to have the nanny stay overnight.
Assuming you leave home at 8am and get back at 6pm, five days a week, comes to 50 hrs/wk. So at (conservative) $20/hr, that's $1000/wk. I might be wrong, but I think for most people it's really only practical if you can offer accommodation and food in return for a lower fixed weekly pay.
I've heard stories (don't know how accurate) of people paying that for inner city childcare
The whole POINT of this nanny program was to provide support to families that work non-standard hours (eg. Police officers, nurses, shift workers). So, it's pretty essential that the nanny is there overnight...