Childcare costs rise

MUMS and dads could be forking out at least $600 more annually for childcare compared with a year ago, with Surf Coast and Bellarine Peninsula parents paying more than their Geelong neighbours.

Parents living on the coast could be paying as much as $1600 more for two kids in childcare annually following a 6 per cent fee hike in the year to March, a Geelong Advertiser analysis reveals.

The number of children in childcare on the Surf Coast and Bellarine Peninsula in the March quarter topped 4680, up 320 from a year ago.

Parents in Greater Geelong, excluding the Bellarine Peninsula, face a 4.3 per cent rise, equating to, on average, $15 extra per week per child. Some 260 more children accessed childcare in the year to March in Greater Geelong.

The Geelong Advertiser analysis relied on federal education department data and assumed families were accessing childcare for 40 weeks per year.

Corangamite Labor MP Libby Coker claimed women were losing “between 80 and 100 per cent” of their take home earings for a fourth or fifth day’s work because of additional childcare costs.

“It’s unsurprising that, for many women, the idea of working for free is unattractive,” Ms Coker said.

Education Minister Dan Tehan said March quarter childcare data showed average fee rises were lower than the 10-year average of 5.3 per cent.

“To support parents with the cost of care, our government has put a freeze on Victorian childcare providers increasing their fees until January 31 next year because of Victoria’s extended lockdown,” he said.

“Taxpayers currently provide $9bn to subsidise the cost of childcare. That subsidy means out-of-pocket costs are less than $5 an hour per child for 71 per cent of parents.

If it wins the next election, which is expected to be held in 2022, federal Labor has pledged to introduce a childcare policy that:

SCRAPS the $10,560 childcare subsidy cap;

LIFTS the maximum childcare subsidy rate to 90 per cent; and,

INCREASES childcare subsidies on a sliding scale for families earning less than $530,000.

“Families pay taxes and under Labor’s plan a family in Geelong earning $80,000 a year will be subsidising the childcare fees of a family in Sydney earning $360,000 a year,” Mr Tehan said.

The government said Labor’s childcare plan would boost childcare subsidies to high-income earners.