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Perhaps, like superannuation, everybody both male and female should be made to put a little of their income aside each month, which is released when they have children or when they decide not to have children (perhaps over a certain age) - this would take some of the burden of maternity leave and child care away.
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Allow parents to pay for child care pre tax using a salary sacrifice system.
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Payment for grandparents care… grandparents need to work longer for financial reasons these days and would rather be helping with grandkids. Support for this would see grandparents able to stay home more and be paid as child carers
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Allow hiring of domestic helpers without high government levies and no minimum wages. Allow special visa holders for nannies and au pairs to do child minding work in Australia.
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Organise provision of early childhood education and care as an extension of school.
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Improve paternity leave; reduce male stigma for being an active parent; offer incentives for places of business and study to incorporate child care into culture/facilities/incentives.
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Look at operating hours Recognise contribution of stay-at-home parents to economy via benefits or tax incentives and support building of networks between stay-at-home parents. Allow flexibility for parents seeking alternative types of child care (e.g. au pair) and offer flexible re-training and/or education to stay-at-home parents.
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It comes from the top down. We need more male CEOs taking action i.e. getting creative about getting smart women back to work instead of staying it is a problem because women have babies and need time off. We will never have equality and more women on boards until either men have babies or are made to take more responsibility.
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Allow grandparents to work and assist them in the paying of the child care instead of looking at their income and deciding they are not entitled.
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Child care spots should be given to parents who are actively working and contributing to society. Many positions in child care are taken by parents who do not work at all leaving those who need to work without care.
areas
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I work for NSW Health. Within the hospital system there is significant discrimination for mothers returning to work on reduced hours or going on mat leave. Managers are not given flexible options to return to their positions and often younger, less experienced staff are put in senior roles until they themselves go on mat leave and then they are pushed aside also.
The government needs to have clear objectives to encourage flexible work practises for women in the workplace and I think this need to start with their own organisations. The majority of health professionals are women and the culture of mothers in the workplace is poor to say the least.
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Build more child care centres with 24 hour services, increase the area required for playgrounds with real grass, trees and nature based play equipment, open more forest schools in Australia.
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Increase maternity and paternity leave and look to the Scandinavian counties where families are supported and children are allowed to build a secure attachment before they are placed in child care!
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Improve the waitlist system - completely ridiculous how there are 500 families on one of the centres we had our names on. And none of the services had a vacancy for my child when I wanted to go back to work.
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Give the educators a pay rise and not by just $1.00. You can pack shelves at Woollies for more money than a two-year qualified educator. It's disgraceful.
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Stop families accessing the service just to socialise their child. Free up spaces for actual working/studying parents. There are many playgroups, pre-school, kinder and social options available for parents that aren't working/studying.
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I'm an ED nurse so I'm frequently at work outside of office hours and my husband's job requires him to travel for work 2-3 months per year so it can be incredibly difficult to co-ordinate child care as we have no family support.
It would be far easier for us if the government allowed the child care rebate to cover the employment of nannies so I wouldn't need to take leave when my husband travelled for work. A nanny would allow me to be more flexible in working arrangements and achieve further career progression which at the moment is limited due to child care restrictions.
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Offer more maternity/paternity leave so that parents can stay home with their children for a minimum of 12 months. This would mean we wouldn't see as many young babies in child care and free up places for older children.
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Child care rebates should be on a sliding scale of working hours not one rebate fits all. How is it fair a parent working one day receives the same rebate as working five days?
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If you're encouraging mothers to go back to work then there needs to be more support for those earning less than child care costs. Possibly fees need to be means tested.
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Allow government sites like hospitals or police stations to have child care at the workplace to suit shift workers and facilitate breastfeeding breaks.
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More available places and preference MUST be given to working parents (both working). If available spots left, non-working parents can than apply for them. You should also lose the spot if a working parent was to require it.
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Retain high standards of care that prioritise child development, not just productivity, during a critical period in development Less focus on formal education and more frameworks that respect children and are based in evidence based strategies of what is important at particular ages, increase the standards for early childhood educators and increase their pay Support increase of quality and provide affordable care for the most vulnerable children regardless of activity tests.
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It would be great to help normalise fathers as equal primary care givers by making it a requirement for employers to provide the same amount of paid leave to men as women get when children are born.
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Allow me to claim the CCR for a nanny - its cheaper than after-school care for more than one child, and I can't get into after school care anyway – they never have spots plus the nanny can take children to after school activities. Its ludicrous to say child care is worth subsidising but nanny care that is flexible and the only thing that would work with full-time work is not subsidised.
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Pay the educators a better wage. It is a great responsibility and they go above and beyond what the government values them for doing. Investing in a child's and this country's future should be the priority.
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Bring in the families package from 1 July 2017, not 2018. Maybe a capped tax deduction (say $10,000) from 1 July 2017. Yes, I realise this benefits higher income earners more than lower, but most of these people work very hard to earn those incomes, and pay a lot of tax, which benefits the community as a whole.
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Get rid of the rebate maximum of $7500 for working parents. It's ridiculous. If your child is in full time care that only gives you 6 months of rebate. That makes working 6 months of the year nearly worthless and that is where the guilt comes from earning next to nothing and missing out on valuable time with your child that you cannot get back.
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Ensure all child care workers are paid equally and fairly. I am trusting these wonderful people to part raise my child and they do a great job. They need to be rewarded and recognised for this.
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