CHILDCARE SAFETY: GOV’S PROPOSED REFORMS WELCOME, NATIONAL REGULATORY BODY NEEDED TO ENSURE ENFORCEMENT
28 March 2025 – Proposed reforms that will withhold or restrict government funding for childcare operators that breach safety and quality standards are a positive step to protect Australian children.
Griffin Longley from Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive by Five campaign said that the proposed measures announced by the Federal Government [1] were a welcome move that will help address child safety concerns but that a national regulatory body was needed to ensure strict oversight
“We know that the majority of early educators are providing high-quality care for our children, but there are unscrupulous, profit-driven early learning providers who must be held accountable for safety and quality violations,” Mr Longley said.
“The Federal Government invests tens of billions of dollars in the early learning system each year. These reforms will make that investment conditional on strict adherence to Australia’s world-leading childcare quality standards and help maintain the public’s trust in our early education and care services
“However, they alone will not address the challenges faced by our early learning system, which lacks a coordinated approach to quality across all States and Territories.
“The Federal Government should work closely with the States and Territories to establish a national regulatory body in the form of a national early childhood commission, which would create a nationally consistent approach to enforcement and oversight.
“In addition to a national commission, the Government must reexamine how Australia’s early learning system is funded.
“Our current approach, which relies primarily on the Child Care Subsidy (CCS), has allowed for-profit providers to dominate the childcare sector. A small number of unscrupulous providers view early childhood education and care as an industry where corporations can cut corners and risk children’s safety just to maximise profits.
“Like Medicare, like superannuation and our public schools, early childhood education and care must be treated as an essential, universal service.
“The CCS system has failed in this regard. We need to flip the funding model and make early learning and childcare free for low-income families and no more than $10 a day in out-of-pocket costs for others,” Mr Longley said
