'Insulting' and 'degrading': budget funding for childcare may help families but educators are still being paid pennies

By Tamara Cumming, Senior Lecturer, Charles Sturt University
Laura McFarland, Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies, Charles Sturt University
Rebecca Bull, Professor, Macquarie University
Sandie Wong, Associate professor, Macquarie University

The government has committed an additional A$1.7 billion over five years to reduce the cost of childcare for around 250,000 families with more than one child. Another $1.6 billion is going into ensuring each four-year-old child gets 15 hours of preschool a week.

But these budget announcements, framed in part as being a boost for women’s participation in the workforce, hold no good news for the early childhood workforce — 95%…

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