For mother Emily Brophy, accessing childcare could be the difference between staying or leaving her community.
Under the latest federal budget, families with combined incomes of less than $530,000 will soon be eligible for greater childcare subsidies.
But staffing challenges and a lack of childcare vacancies mean not all families will benefit.
Flinders Island, off Tasmania's north-east coast, has one operator, Furneaux Child Care Centre.
It cannot take on any more children and only operates from 8:30am until 3:30pm.
Ms Brophy sends her three-year-old daughter Sophia to the centre, but if she cannot get her newborn Zoe a place the family will face some tough decisions.
"It is a reality that we'll have to leave," Ms Brophy said.
"I feel quite stressed about that, because it may mean that our family will be separated, depending on whether [my partner] is able to secure work.
"We've just built a house here and we are sort of establishing ourselves in the community and want to stay here for a period of time — it's not ideal at all."
Ms Brophy, a schoolteacher, said leaving would affect the broader community because a replacement for her would have to be found.
"A subsidy is great, but I don't really care about the price I have to pay currently," she said.
"It's more about knowing that I have the care here."
Knock-on effects
Mayor Rachel Summers said when a childcare worker took leave or a sick day, nurses, doctors, teachers, and pub staff could not go to work.
"[Childcare workers] really are a skilled workforce that are essential to our communities," she said.
In the budget, the government committed to delivering 1,469 additional university places for early education teachers, as well as free TAFE placements.
But Cr Summers said the plan did not look beyond the capital cities.
"Anything that is going to make education easier or cheaper for people, I love it, absolutely love it," she said.
"But it's not making it easier for people to access it here on the island.
"Having free TAFE places is great, that will help … but it's not going to help if people are still having to go off the island for training."
Cr Summers wanted to see more funding poured directly into childcare centres to help them support staff.
"Our wonderful educators that we have here at the moment are all very young — this is their first sort of real job and they're expected to be managing a childcare centre," she said.
"[Workers] aren't getting support in training, they aren't getting supported by management.
"It's great having the subsidy … so that more kids can get into childcare, but if you don't have the staff, then they're still not going to be able to get in there."
'Extremely important'
The nationwide workforce challenges are more pronounced in regional, rural and remote areas.
Mitchell Institute director Peter Hurley said many of the issues within the sector — including difficulty attracting and retaining workers, poor conditions and poor pay — were endemic.
Dr Hurley said it was unclear whether the budget measures would create change and that it was time to consider the structure of the early learning sector.
The government provides money to schools, but takes a subsidy-based approach to early education and gives money to families instead.
"There's going to be continued demand and there's going to be continued need for a greater workforce, and the same problems of not great pay, difficulty retaining staff, are going to continue until we have a better look at how we've designed this system," he said.
Dr Hurley said the government could increase loadings in regional and rural areas, as it does for schools.
"Early childhood is extremely important," he said.
"It sets young people up for the rest of their lives and doing it properly is something that I think is worth investing in.
"The big decisions lie ahead, the heavy decisions lie ahead, and this budget is setting it up."
Federal Early Childhood Education Minister Anne Aly said making early childhood education more affordable was only possible by retaining, recruiting, and training a high-quality workforce.
She said the government had changed the Fair Work Act to allow multi-employer bargaining, which would help close the gender pay gap and benefit the early childhood education sector.
"We're working with the sector and state and territories to find lasting solutions that ensure all communities across the country, including regional, rural and remote communities, have access to early childhood education and care," Ms Aly said.
