Highlights
- Centre-based daycare, outside school hours care, family daycare, in home care and preschools all receive funding from the Commonwealth Government.
- In general, the support that the Commonwealth Government gives is higher for people who earn less.
- To be able to receive Child Care Subsidy, a parent or their partner must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident or be on an eligible visa, such as a Special Category visa or Temporary Protection visa
Sarah Gardiner is a mother of three. She has a boy who has just turned seven, a four-and-a-half-year-old girl and a nine-week-old baby. Mrs Gardiner, who is a business owner, has managed to keep working full time for the last six years with only eight-week breaks when her second and third children were born. She says this was possible because of a range of childcare services with the freedom to work flexible hours.
Dr Ros Baxter, Deputy Secretary of the Early Childhood and Child Care Group at the Department of Education, Skills and Employment, says there are several childcare options that parents in Australia can choose from.
"For example, if you earn less than $70,000 a year, you’ll be on the highest level of the subsidy, which is 85% which means if your centre-based daycare is charging you $10 we will pay for 85% of that — which is $8.50 an hour — and you will then to pay the other $1.5. On the other hand, if you are at the very highest end of the income scale, you may find that you only get a 30% subsidy from the government so we may be only paying for about in $3.00 of that $10 an hour. "
