Rush for childcare permits

MELBOURNE parents had just six hours to scramble for a childcare permit overnight, which came after workers were left waiting when a government website for vital employment passes crashed.

Premier Daniel Andrews announced about 12pm that eligible parents requiring childcare would need a specific permit but applications were not accessible online until after 5pm.

It was just hours before new restrictions that allow only children of those permitted workers to go to childcare or kinder kicked in at 11.59pm.

It came after workers were left unable to fill in travel exemption permits on Wednesday morning after the government’s website crashed.

The Department of Justice web page could not be reached for about an hour as Melburnians scrambled to secure a pass ahead of stage-four work restrictions coming into effect.

The department site and form page both read “Not Found”, with employees unsuccessfully trying to gain access, before the mishap was rectified about 9am.

Unveiling the childcare permit scheme on Wednesday, Mr Andrews said permitted workers could send their child to care only if there was nobody else in their home who could look after them.

He called for parents to be honest. “If a permitted worker could not do their work because they have no one else to care for their child, and if childcare was denied to them, they would not be able to do their work, then they can use childcare,” he said.

“I will leave it to individual parents to make that rather difficult judgment.”