Naughty corner for daycare operators

Secretive daycare operators have been fined for failing to publish their fees, in a federal government crackdown on childcare costs.

Childcare centres have been fined for failing to publish fees. Picture: iStock

Secretive daycare operators have been fined for failing to publish their fees, in a federal government crackdown on childcare costs.

Fifteen centres were fined $2750 each for leaving prices off the federal government’s Starting Blocks website, which parents use to find and compare childcare centres.

A federal Education Department spokesperson on Thursday said providers had a legal obligation to report their fees online.

“The department is unable to provide the names of providers who have received fines,’’ the spokesperson said. “Fines for failing to report fees are currently $2750.’’

Greens education spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi on Thursday said rising fees were making early childhood education too expensive, despite a rise in taxpayer subsidies. She called on the government to scrap tax cuts for high income earners to fund free childcare.

“People could be thousands of dollars out of pocket because of higher gap fees that eat up the benefit of the subsidy,’’ Senator Faruqi told a Senate estimates hearing.

She said two commercial operators, G8 and Busy Bees, had increased fees by 10 per cent last year, and urged the Education Department to write to them seeking an explanation. Departmental officials at the hearing agreed to contact the companies.

Senator Faruqi asked why the government was not making childcare “universal and free’’.

Assistant Education Minister Anthony Chisholm said the government had asked the Productivity Commission to recommend a model for a 90 per cent fee rebate by the middle of next year. “We are committed to doing what we can within budget restraints,’’ he said.

Senator Faruqi called on the government to axe legislated tax cuts for high income earners next year. The opposition’s education spokes­­woman, Sarah Henderson, said the long inquiry showed the Albanese government was “sitting on its hands and stalling rather than acting’’.

Education Department officials told the hearing Australia would have a shortage of 7000 childcare staff by July.

Senator Chisholm refused to say whether the government would help fund a 15 per cent pay rise granted to early childhood educators by the Fair Work Commission, saying he hoped workers and employers could “bargain in good faith’’.