New nanny initiative to support shift-workers

Tuesday 28 April 2015 Canberra has announced a trial to subsidise the cost of nannies for some families. It’s hoped the new program will provide options for parents who can’t access traditional childcare services. TRANSCRIPT Adele Croker has been a nanny for nine years. She looks after Sofia and Ari for three to four days…

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Nanny access a chance for Illawarra families

Illawarra families may soon have access to government payments for nannies if recommendations made in a major childcare review are adopted. The long-awaited Productivity Commission report, tabled in Parliament on Friday, aims to make childcare more affordable, flexible and accessible. Among the suggestions made in the 1000-page document was an extension to subsidies to include…

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Childcare report gets thumbs down from sector

Childcare experts and parents have been left scratching their heads at the Productivity Commission’s long-awaited blueprint for childcare reform, arguing its proposed new funding system is too difficult to understand and that many families would be worse off under the plan. One childcare sector representative told Fairfax Media the Abbott government would be “crazy” to…

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Nanny rebates aren’t about helping the rich

Nannies are no longer for the rich and famous. Most work now for average Australian families, many of whom do shift work and don’t fit into the regular childcare system. Melbourne nanny Tracey McDermott said Australia was a “24hr-a-day, seven day a week society” and everyone would benefit from subsidies for nannies as an alternative…

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Nanny rebate battle stepped up

THE newly incorporated Australian Nanny Association will meet Childcare Minister Kate Ellis’s advisers next month to push its case for taxpayer subsidies and warn the government that the family daycare model will not solve the nation’s childcare woes. The news comes after Ms Ellis this week said expanding family daycare would solve the flexibility problems…

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Government ‘losing tax opportunities’

Government ‘losing tax opportunities’ THE federal budget stands to gain from allowing families to claim childcare benefits for their nannies as it will force the system to become regulated and employees working underground will start paying taxes. In its budget submission ahead of the May budget, the Australian Nanny Association argues that the government “is…

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