HIGH CHILDCARE COSTS A REALITY FOR RURAL AUSTRALIA

Image credit: Jalygurr Corporation Facebook page

Recent research by the Mitchell Institute has found 73 per cent of families in regional Australia support the adoption of universal childcare for children, up from 69 per cent in 2021.

Previous research by the Institute found that 62 per cent of people in outer regional Australia experience inadequate access to high quality early learning opportunities. 

Essa Coffin runs the Jalygurr Indigenous child care Corporation in Broome. 

She says staff shortages makes it hard to access early childhood learning opportunities. 

“I believe it really is hard, and the reason I say that is because of our wait, we have a long waitlist, but we have a shortage of staff,” she said.

“Therefore we cannot fulfil our waitlist if we don’t have the quality amount of staff here to then go back and do our waitlist.”

She says the process for entering early child care can also be a barrier. 

“They find it mostly hard of not knowing, and not educated enough about waitlist, enrolment forms, you know the procedure it takes to actually get into a childcare, especially those who are under the department of care, in the department of community, it’s harder for those kids to gain care",” she said.