The Federal Government has launched a new website to help parents find the right childcare centres for them.
Child Care Finder will allow parents to search and compare the available centres in their areas.
For many parents, finding the right childcare centre can be a time-consuming task between comparing and visiting centres and finding those with vacancies.
But the Federal Government is hoping to make it easier with the launch of a new website.
Human Services and Digital Transformation Minister Michael Keenan says the website will make life easier for parents.
“We're taking advantage of new technology to be able to provide a better service,” said Mr Keenan.
The Child Care Finder website will provide parents with an easy search function to find and compare their nearest childcare centres.
They can then check for vacancies, opening hours, fees and National Quality ratings.
Parents speaking with SBS on the streets of Sydney welcomed the move.
“I've had to just do research one by one, website by website, recommendation by recommendation, so ...,” said a parent adding that this is a time-consuming process. Another parent added: “If we can find, like, all the pricing and all the information from the website, if it's consolidated, then that would be great.”
The Minister says the new website may help protect parents against price rises, too. “Certainly, it will allow people to shop around, and that will put downward pressure on prices. Transparency and the ability to sort of see what's in your area, I think, is always useful for that,” said he.
But while Michael Keenan says competition will put downward pressure on prices, the Australian Childcare Alliance's Chiang Lim says he is not so sure.
“Ironically, for the last two years, the supply policy of the Government is actually forcing an environment now where there are too many services in the system, and, in fact, rather than actually trying to decrease prices, is actually increasing prices instead,” says Mr Lim.
