The Greens have backed a community call to retain free childcare in light of the Education Minister\u2019s strongest indications yet that the government would revert back to a fee-paying model, potentially as early as next month.
\nSenator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens spokesperson for Education, said:
\n\u201cFree childcare has been a huge step forward for access to childcare for families. It should be made permanent.
\n\u201cThe government may think it will save money by going back to the fee-paying model, but we know the social and economic benefits of free childcare are enormous.
\n\u201cThe economic impacts of COVID-19 are going to be felt for many months and years. People are doing it tough, and a return to fee-paying childcare now will only make things worse.
\n\u201cThe Minister should be looking at how to ensure ongoing access to free childcare, and options for expanded public operation of childcare, not doubling down on a return to fees that will once again prevent families from accessing childcare.
\n\u201cFree childcare, hand-in-hand with a fair and decent wage for workers in the sector, benefits everyone.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s time to recognise childcare as an essential service available to anyone who needs it, not just those who can afford it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Greens have backed a community call to retain free childcare in light of the Education Minister\u2019s strongest indications yet that the government would revert back to a fee-paying model, potentially as early as next month. Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens spokesperson for Education, said: \u201cFree childcare has been a huge step forward for access to … Continue reading “Greens: Childcare Must Remain Free”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}