Our Kids, Our Choice

We're asking the Albanese Government to expand the Child Care Subsidy so families can direct their existing subsidy to a broader range of care including nannies, au pairs, grandparents, and co-working spaces with onsite creche. One simple change: let the money follow the child, not the centre. We're not asking for more funding. We're asking for existing funding to work for every family.

The Child Care Subsidy (CCS) is a taxpayer-funded payment that helps Australian families cover the cost of childcare, based on income, work activity, and care type. Right now it can only be used for approved providers in practice, almost exclusively centre-based daycare. Families using alternative forms of care receive nothing, regardless of their income or circumstances.

A new category Family Selected Care would allow families to direct their subsidy to registered nannies, au pairs, relatives such as grandparents, and carers in co-working spaces with onsite creche. Families who prefer centre-based care see no change. This is an expansion of options, not a replacement of existing ones.

Yes. All carers would need to be registered on a national carer register, hold a Working With Children Check, First Aid certification, and complete appropriate training. Crucially, these requirements would be designed for in-home and one-to-one care settings not copied from a centre-based model that doesn't fit.

No. Family Selected Care is a reallocation of existing subsidy, not new spending. Families redirecting their subsidy free up centre places, reduce waitlist pressure, and boost workforce participation — particularly among women. The economic case is strong. This is a stabilising reform, not a spending escalation.

The new “Three Day Guarantee” policy allows families to access subsidised childcare without having to meet the activity test. This means parents no longer need to work (study or volunteer) to qualify for three days of subsidised childcare care. Since the introduction of this policy, many parents have expressed concern that this policy further devalues the role of parents who choose to care for their own children, as the government will pay for their children to be cared for by someone else, but not support parents to care for their own children. We are advocating for parents to access equivalent financial support as a form of extended paid parental leave.

We advocate for families not using the CCS being able to access equivalent financial support as a form of extended paid parental leave. This is especially relevant given the commencement of the “Three Day Guarantee”, which allows parents to access subsidised childcare without meeting the activity test.

No, this is a myth! The benefits of early learning are overwhelmingly attributed to Preschool (known as Kindy in some states). These evidence-based early learning programs are delivered by teachers in the year before commencing school and are usually 15 hours/2-3 days per week. Expanding the CCS to other forms of care does not impact preschool participation. [Source: Australian Federal Government Education Department, First Five Years project report, published December 2025].

This “needs based” program is failing the families it is intended to serve and needs urgent reform. Use of this program continues to decline due to: 1. overly burdensome regulation mirroring centre based daycare and is not fit-for-purpose. 2. unnecessary qualification requirements limiting availability of eligible carers. A Cert III in childcare is mandatory and requires 100+ hours of unpaid work experience in a childcare centre. This qualification is largely unrelated to the role of an in-home carer, is not easily achievable for regional, rural and remote based carers and an excessive requirement compared to requirements for aged care and disability support workers; 3. complicated and splintered provider network requires parents to expend significant effort to understand basic information such as program fees; and 4. high administrative fees absorbing much of the subsidy, increasing costs for families so much that in many cases it is cheaper to employ a carer outside the program.