Modelling provided to NSW Treasury shows that 568,700 NSW children (or 35.2 per cent) aged four and under live in a childcare desert,which researchers define as an area with fewer than 0.333 childcare places per child.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has signalled that women will be a major part of next month’s budget,and has identified childcare reform as the single most important issue to get more women working.
Earlier this year,Kean warned that NSW was prepared to address the decades-long issue of unaffordable childcare in next month’s budget if the federal government did not.
Childcare affordability has been seen as an impediment to women returning to the workforce,with federal Education Department figures projecting that daycare fees will rise 4.1 per cent a year for the next four years,far outstripping inflation.
An extensive policy will be presented to cabinet’s expenditure review committee,with options that could include increased subsidies to families to improve affordability as well government-run services in areas that are lacking in availability.
Kean said no final decisions had been made,but he had been convinced that addressing affordable and accessible childcare in the budget was critical after being presented with findings from the women’s economic expert panel,led by Chief Executive Women president Sam Mostyn.