Katherine Durant lives in the town of Rainbow, population 600, in Victoria’s north-west. Durant’s husband, a fourth-generation Mallee farmer, runs a 2,500-hectare sheep and dryland cropping operation while she stays home with their two young boys. The days are long and the nights can be longer.
“Ben usually works seven days a week and during cropping and harvest times it is not unusual for the boys to not see him for days on end,” Durant said. “For several months a year I solo parent, while trying to keep all the other balls I’m juggling in the air as well.
“At the moment I am at the coalface of the rural childcare struggle.”
Durant’s story is not uncommon among families in regional, rural and remote communities. In rural Minyip in Victoria’s Wimmera region, Alexandra Mackenzie and her husband rely on childcare in Horsham, 50km away, as well as the support of extended family.
Mackenzie does the farm books and also works casually as an ICU nurse. She said the children often had to stay on the farm with them while they worked.
“With farming there is no break, so you don’t have a partner who can take the kids while you take a day off,” she said.
“When it’s harvest, I never see my husband as he’s so busy working. I have the kids all the time, while also cooking meals for everyone.
“Owning a farm makes it look like our income is large but there’s not much cashflow – it all goes back into the farm. So on the days that I’m not working, childcare is really expensive.”
Durant’s and Mackenzie’s stories are among the more than 160 featured as part of a new qualitative report released by The Parenthood, an independent not-for-profit parent advocacy organisation, on Monday.
The report highlighted the plight of parents in accessing regional, rural and remote early childhood education and care, and made a number of recommendations including switching to a supply-side funding model, abolishing activity tests and better support for the childcare workforce.
The Parenthood campaign director, Maddy Butler, said the number of families across regional, rural and remote Australia without access to accessible and affordable childcare was alarming.
“Children are not arriving at school prepared, they’re missing out on social and educational opportunities, parents and carers are not returning to work, and this all has flow-on effects on whole communities,” she said.
A September report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found that market forces alone had not delivered affordable and accessible childcare for all Australian families under the current policy settings. It recommended governments consider introducing a market stewardship approach in areas where there is an undersupply of childcare, a recommendation that The Parenthood supports.
In a statement accompanying that report, the ACCC chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said “a mix of different measures and supports may be needed to deliver affordable and accessible childcare for families in different locations and situations across the country”.
The federal government has announced $72.4m over five years to support the early childhood sector, with a particular focus on regional and remote communities and First Nations services.
The early childhood education minister, Anne Aly, acknowledged there was a limited supply of childcare in some regional and remote communities.
“We’re helping services to open and stay open,” she said. “We’re also looking to the future with a vision for universal access to early childhood education and have commissioned the Productivity Commission to undertake a comprehensive inquiry.”
Butler said governments needed to “step in where the market has not” to ensure equitable access to childcare, regardless of postcode.
“Sixteen children may not be considered enough demand to render a service sustainable under the current policy settings. However, those 16 children still have a legitimate need for early education and care,” she said.
