Personal Injury

Australia’s childcare system is broken – beholden to corporate interest – and beleaguered by systemic failure.

Every day, a new story hits the headlines, reigniting the fervent outrage of parents and guardians nationwide.

Just yesterday, A Northern Territory childcare Centre and three workers were charged over the accidental hanging death of a toddler.

It comes after a year-long ABC investigation uncovered widespread physical and sexual abuse, chronic understaffing, and systemic regulatory failure across the $22 billion sector.

While there seems to be a universal consensus that change is needed, what’s missing is a unified roadmap for reform. However, that now seems poised to change.

55 early childhood academics have banded together, urging federal, state and territory governments to restore public trust in the childcare system.

They propose lifting workforce quality through better pay, conditions, and training, lowering staff-to-child ratios and giving regulators better resources to conduct frequent, unannounced inspections.

They’re also calling for the creation of an independent national early childhood commission to oversee and coordinate the system.

The Six Point Plan

Earlier this year, the Early Childhood Professional Advisory Council (led by Community Child Care Association, Community Early Learning and the Early Learning Association Australia released their Six-Point Plan for Education and Care.

As childcare centres confront a workforce crisis, skyrocketing compliance obligations and rising allegations of abuse, the six-point plan has become unexpectedly prescient – providing a blueprint for the legal reforms Australia desperately needs.

The plan is blunt, and solutions-based – a call to lawmakers and regulators to confront the uncomfortable truth that Australia’s childcare system is not simply stretched – it is structurally unsustainable.

1. Universal Access: Two Days of Funded Early Learning for Every Child

The plan calls for every child from birth until school age to receive at least two days of government-funded early childhood education and care per week.

This recommendation reframes early learning as a universal entitlement rather than a market-dependent service. In Australia, access is presently contingent on the availability of a centre, the ability to pay out-of-pocket fees after the Child Care Subsidy, and the service’s viability within a given community. This results in a “postcode lottery”, with access varying significantly across regions and socio-economic groups.

Implementing universal access would require coordinated Commonwealth and state reform, including amendments to the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 and potential restructuring of the national law. It would align early learning more closely with Australia’s rights-based framework for primary education and address structural inequity in developmental support.

2. Strengthening Inclusion as a Practical and Legal Guarantee

The second step calls for a more robust and better-funded system of inclusion for children with disability, developmental delay, trauma histories or other additional needs.

While inclusion is legally mandated by anti-discrimination frameworks at the state and federal levels, these services often lack the funding and resources to meet these obligations. Administrative burdens, inconsistent access to inclusion staff and variable implementation undermine compliance.

Strengthening inclusion funding and streamlining administrative pathways would reinforce anti-discrimination obligations and align the sector with the findings of the Disability Royal Commission. It would also address systemic barriers that currently place vulnerable children at heightened risk, particularly in relation to supervision and safety requirements.

3. Mandatory National Quality Standard Assessments Every Three Years

The plan proposes that every service be assessed and rated against the National Quality Standard at least once every three years. Wednesday

Current assessment cycles can extend to five or seven years, leaving families with outdated quality ratings and reducing the effectiveness of regulatory oversight. More frequent assessments ensure greater transparency, consistency and early detection of safety or compliance issues.

Given the increasing number of reportable conduct matters and the rise in investigations by state regulatory authorities, more regular reassessment is a proportionate and legally sound mechanism for mitigating risk.

4. A National Industrial Instrument for Educators

The workforce shortage remains the sector’s most pressing challenge. Early childhood educators operate under a patchwork of modern awards, enterprise agreements and casualised arrangements, resulting in low wages and limited career progression. These conditions contribute directly to persistent staffing deficits, which in turn undermine the provider’s ability to satisfy educator-to-child ratios mandated under the National Law and Regulations.

The plan calls for the creation of a national, sector-specific industrial instrument – a unified framework for wages and conditions that recognises the complexity and importance of early childhood education. This could be achieved through legislative amendment or through a national workplace determination process akin to reforms implemented in the aged-care sector.

An instrument like this would reduce turnover, support recruitment, and facilitate compliance with legal obligations relating to supervision, safety and quality.

5. Implement the National Children’s Education and Care Workforce Strategy Now

The National Children’s Education and Care Workforce Strategy (2022–2031) outlines the skills, training pathways and reforms needed to build a sustainable educator workforce.

But its implementation has been slow, fragmented, and voluntary. In order to ensure its effectiveness, immediate action is necessary. This could involve:

• federally funded scholarships and fee-free qualifications,
• migration pathways prioritising experienced educators,
• professional development guarantees,
• mandatory induction standards,
• and retention incentives built into regulatory settings.

If the government can legislate reforms for teachers, nurses and aged-care workers, there is no legal barrier to similar treatment for early childhood educators.

6. Infrastructure and Sector Support Funding

The final step of the plan is to increase dedicated funding for infrastructure and operational support across the sector.

Many services, particularly community-run centres, operate from ageing or inadequate buildings that make compliance with the National Regulations difficult. Issues relating to physical environment, security, emergency management and accessibility can impede a service’s ability to meet minimum regulatory standards.

A lack of adequate infrastructure can expose providers to legal liability under the National Law, WHS legislation and claims of negligence. A structured capital investment program would improve compliance capacity and reduce systemic safety risks.

The final step of the plan is to increase dedicated funding for infrastructure and operational support across the sector.

Looking Ahead

As the sector continues to experience unprecedented demand, heightened scrutiny and complex regulatory expectations, the case for legislative and policy reform is compelling. The six-point plan offers a practical and evidence-based pathway to re-establishing a stable, safe and equitable national childcare system capable of meeting Australia’s legal, economic and social needs.