Why childcare fees are surging in the northside
Families in Brisbane’s northside are being slugged up to 10 per cent more for childcare than they were a year ago. HOW MUCH YOUR SUBURB’S FEES HAVE GONE UP
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Families in Nundah are paying almost 10 per cent more for childcare than they were last year and nearby suburbs have also seen steep rises, a new analysis shows.
Federal Department of Education data crunched by the ALP showed big rises in the March quarter, just before fees were frozen due to lockdown.
About 12,000 northside families use centre-based day car or outside school care.
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Labor MP for Lilley, Anika Wells, said the steep increases locally supported her party’s plan
to overhaul childcare subsidies for 97 per cent of families.
However, the peak Queensland childcare lobby said both Labor and the LNP had yet to back the industry’s four-point plan which it claimed would keep fees in check.
Ms Wells said the data showed that fees for centre-based day care in the Nundah statistical area rose 9.6 per cent to $10.55 an hour in the March quarter, compared with the same quarter in 2019.
Everton Park fees rose 8.8 per cent to $9.66 an hour, Sandgate increased 6.2 per cent to $9.86 an hour, and Chermside was up 5.8 per cent to $9.84 an hour.
She said the average hourly childcare fee in Queensland was $9.15 in the March 2020 quarter.
Ms Wells said outside school hours care fees had also risen in Nundah, by 9.6 per cent to $6.71 an hour.
Everton Park’s went up 8.8 per cent to $6.40, Sandgate climbed 6.2 per cent to $6.46 and Chermside rose 5.8 per cent to $6.99.
“Parents know the childcare payment system is broken, so it was very disappointing to see the
federal Budget failed to address any of the gaps in the system that Lilley residents have been talking to me about since I was elected,” Ms Wells said.
National childcare operator, Goodstart Early Learning, which has a centre at Nundah, was approached for comment, as were several other operators in the area.
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St Paul’s Lutheran Child Care Centre at Nundah said its fees had not risen.
Australian Childcare Alliance Queensland general manager, Brent Stokes, said fee rises in the northside had been closer to 3-4 per cent and were frozen between March and September due to COVID-19.
He was not aware of any centres raising fees last month.
“We had some regulation changes which have pushed up fees including a requirement, from January 1, for centres to have a second university-qualified teacher,’’ Mr Stokes said.
“But the main driver for rises was on the back of a wage increase last July (2019).
“We’re trying to get Labor and the LNP to commit to our policy manifesto, which will help keep a check on fees.’’
This included extension of the current payroll tax liability exemptions and extension of the Federal Government’s universal funding for kindies, which he said saved families $43 a week.
He also said chronic oversupply of new centres had to be addressed.
“There was a pause (in building new centres) at the start of lockdown but now we’re seeing mor applications,’’ he said.
Ms Wells said Labor’s childcare policy would result in 50 per cent of families paying less than $20 a day.
“Families can’t sustain increases of eight, nine or 10 per cent in their childcare fees, year-on-
year – not before COVID and certainly not now when the latest data says in Lilley we have
20,000 workers on JobKeeper, over 8,600 on Jobseeker and thousands more working
reduced hours,” she said.