The Coalition’s ‘big change’ to childcare was a dud. Parents and teachers deserve better

‘Isn’t it time that the screams of parents of young children and of the educators and early childhood teachers are heard?’ writes Lisa Bryant. Photograph: Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images

Childcare is once again going to be a key federal election issue and several research reports about the policy area have been released in the last few days.

One of these found that access to childcare is (surprise, surprise) a huge problem, with childcare black spots existing across Australia. Another report found that children in some centres were going hungry, with some centres allocating as little as 65 cents a day per child for food.