Cheapest and most expensive areas for child care in Tasmania

Are you paying too much for child care? We reveal Tasmania’s cheapest and most expensive areas. The results may surprise you.

Tasmania’s cheapest and most expensive suburbs for child care have been revealed in new data which shows some parents are forking out $11,150 a year in fees.

The first child care cost figures released for 2019 also show fees have spiked 8 per cent in some Hobart suburbs and by 13 per cent in Burnie on average in the past 12 months.

Launceston had the state’s priciest centres, with families paying average hourly fees of $9.60 or $11,151 a year.

Two out of the 23 childcare centres in Launceston were also charging more per hour than the government’s subsidy cap.

SEE THE FULL BREAKDOWN OF COSTS BELOW

Suburbs in Hobart’s north west around Moonah, Derwent Park, Glenorchy, Montrose, Rosetta, Glenlusk, Collinsvale and New Norfolk had the state’s next most expensive centres with average hourly fees of $9.41 or $10,930 a year.

That’s based on the areas’ average hourly fee costs, Tasmania’s average of 24.2 hours of child care per week and 48 weeks a year.

Fees in the area rose 8.2 per cent in the year to March, data from the federal Education Department shows.

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An analysis by The Mercury found Hobart’s inner suburbs from Ridgeway to New Town and north east suburbs from Flagstaff Gully to Clifton Beach had the next most expensive childcare.

Families paid about $10,895 per year on average in the inner suburbs and $10,791 a year in the north east.

Tasmania’s cheapest child care was in Hobart’s south and west suburbs and around Bruny Island and Huonville and Cygnet.

In suburbs around Taroona to Kaoota, Piersons Point and Coningham, families paid about $8.44 an hour or $9800 a year.

Fees around Bruny Island and Huonville were $8.23 an hour on average or about $9560 a year.

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All regions except around Bruny Island and Huonville and Cygnet have seen fees rise above the inflation rate in the past year.

“The Government promised their new child care system would put downward pressure on prices, but this has not been the case,” Labor’s child care spokeswoman Amanda Rishworth said.

“Child care fees across Australia have now risen a staggering 30 per cent since the Liberals were elected in 2013.”

An Education Department spokesman said out-of-pocket costs for families were down by 7.9 per cent under the new child care subsidy, introduced last July.

“The latest data shows that 88 per cent of centre-based day care services have an average hourly charge that is at or lower than the Government’s hourly rate cap,” he said.

“For nearly 570,000 or 74.3 per cent of the 767,000 children in centre based day care, their parents’ out of pocket costs are less than $5 per hour per child.”