Families are dropping out of daycare, women are cutting back on work and children are beginning school before they are ready as a result of high income-earning families losing access to childcare subsidies.
Government statistics from Senate estimates show 14,000 children dropped out of childcare in the year between September 2017 and 2018, an unusually big fall that many blame on cuts to subsidies for non-working parents or high-income families.
About 15000 families fell off the so-called “Hinch Cliff”, the $350,000 income point at which parents lose access to any government subsidy. It was named for the independent senator who insisted on the cut-off, Derryn Hinch.
[category Aust, inequity, reproductive rights]