Tassie’s most expensive and cheapest revealed

TASMANIA’S cheapest and most expensive suburbs for childcare have been revealed in new data which shows some parents pay $11,150 a year in fees.

The first childcare cost figures released for 2019 also show fees have spiked 8 per cent in some Hobart suburbs and by 13 per cent in Burnie on average in the past 12 months.

Launceston had the state’s priciest centres, with families paying average hourly fees of $9.60 or $11,151 a year.

Two out of the 23 childcare centres in Launceston were also charging more per hour than the government’s subsidy cap.

Suburbs in Hobart’s northwest around Moonah, Derwent Park, Glenorchy, Montrose, Rosetta, Glenlusk, Collinsvale and New Norfolk had the state’s next most expensive centres with average hourly fees of $9.41 or $10,930 a year.

That’s based on the area’s average hourly fee costs, Tasmania’s average of 24.2 hours of child care per week and 48 weeks a year.

Fees in the area rose 8.2 per cent in the year to March, federal Education Department data shows. An analysis by the Mer

cury found Hobart’s inner suburbs from Ridgeway to New Town and northeast suburbs from Flagstaff Gully to Clifton Beach had the next most expensive childcare. Families paid about $10,895 per year on average in the inner suburbs and $10,791 a year in the northeast.

Tasmania’s cheapest childcare was in Hobart’s south and west suburbs and around Bruny Island, Huonville and Cygnet.

In suburbs around Taroona to Kaoota, Piersons Point and Coningham, families paid about $8.44 an hour or $9800 a year.

Fees around Bruny Island and Huonville were $8.23 an hour on average or about $9560 a year.

“The Government promised their new childcare system would put downward pressure on prices, but this has not been the case,” Labor’s childcare spokeswoman Amanda Rishworth said. “Childcare fees across Australia have now risen a staggering 30 per cent since the Liberals were elected in 2013.”

An Education Department spokesman said outof-pocket costs for families were down by 7.9 per cent under the new childcare subsidy, introduced last July.

“The latest data shows that 88 per cent of centrebased day care services have an average hourly charge that is at or lower than the Government’s hourly rate cap,” he said.