In a cost-of-living crisis when it seems the price of everything is going up, there’s some good news for families, with many paying less for childcare.
More than a million Australian families have children in some form of care and they pay among the highest fees in the world.
But the government says some of that expense has been shaved down off the back of its increased subsidies.
Education Department data shows out-of-pocket costs have dropped by 13 per cent in the past year.
This means a $2140 saving for a family earning $120,000 a year with one child in care three days a week.
“And the figures released that show that our early childhood education and care policy is working to reduce the costs of early childhood education and care for families are good news today,” Minister for Early Childhood Education Anne Aly said.
However, Shadow Early Education Minister Angie Bell argues they aren’t the statistics to be looking at.
“The Australian Bureau of Statistics doesn’t lie and their figures show that out-of-pocket childcare costs are up 8.4 per cent over the last 12 months,” Bell told 9News.
The government is keen to spruik the benefits of increased subsidies because it wants to go further.
Free care for families on wages under $80,000 was recommended by the Productivity Commission earlier this month at a $5 billion a year cost that would take total taxpayer spending on subsidies to $17 billion.
Aly says that plan and other options are on the table as Labor looks for a pathway to universal childcare – a policy which could then form a key part of its re-election pitch.