The Australian areas still in 'childcare deserts', and the staggering number of families who can't access care

Any parent who has tried to get their kids into childcare in recent years knows getting a space at the centre you want can be almost impossible, let alone getting them into a centre at all. 

While there has been some improvement on the availability of childcare places, Georgie Dent, CEO of The Parenthood, has explained there are some areas of Australia where families are really struggling. 

"New research from The Mitchell Institute shows that about 24 per cent of families in Australia live in what's described as a childcare desert which means there are three of more children for every available place," she said on Today Extra. 

"Deserts tend to be outside of the metropolitan areas and more in regional and rural areas but the access is an issue right across the country." 

But when it comes to the areas struggling the most, it is predominantly families who are in the regional, rural and remote areas. 

"The Mitchell Institute did this research in 2020 there has actually been an improvement overall," she explained. 

"So we've got about 80,000 new positions in the last four years, they have tended to occur in the metropolitan areas or also in the sort of larger regional centres.

"But if you're living outside of those areas, so 700,000 children, have absolutely no access."

"That's why it's called a childcare desert?" asked Today Extra co-host David Campbell. 

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Dent said the reason this is such a big problem is because it's a twofold issue. 

Firstly, quality early education and care is great for a child's education and development, but families also need to be to able to access quality childcare to be able to work. 

"One of the families in our community, she is a nurse," Dent explained. 

"She has been on parental leave now for 14 months, her plan was to go back to work after one year." 

The woman's child is on five different wait lists for a childcare space, but she doesn't have a single day yet and her family is really missing out on having that second income – which they need. 

But it's not just her career that's suffering, the town they live in is also short a nurse because she can't find the childcare to be able to work. 

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"So you can see the flow on impact. It is for Children, for families and for communities, it is a huge issue." 

It's a huge issue with as Campbell put it, 700,000 kids in "this desert" and he asked Dent what needs to be done to fix it. 

Dent believes we need to recognise that if we want every child and every community to have access to the benefits of early education and care, we need to look at making a guarantee so that that's possible.

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"Instead of it being a postcode lottery, it is simply the case that wherever a child lives, regardless of their parents' income or activity, there is a position available for them in early education and care and that's what The Parenthood is calling on The federal government to look at creating a guarantee so that every child does have that access because it's not fair."

The biggest issue with the gap is that the age of zero to five is a really crucial one to get kids ready for when they get to school to help set them up for the rest of their lives.

"There's a lot of work to do," Dent added.

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