Rising fees and staff shortages: the crisis in Australia’s childcare system

Sami and Neerav Giri, who are expecting their third child; Sami says increases in childcare costs have not matched an increase in quality, ‘yet we are in a position where we have to pay it’. Photograph: Dan Peled/The Guardian

When Sami Giri found out a few weeks ago that the fees at her daughters’ childcare centre were going up in three weeks, she had a “physiological response”.

“I remember it was a Friday afternoon, at a primary school event,” she tells Guardian Australia. “I was reading emails during the break when it came through. I could feel my blood boiling. I was shaking, getting really stressed, anxious, emotional.”