Don’t worry – our little people aren’t being pushed into NAPLAN-style testing… This is about Labor’s new childcare subsidies that took effect in July 2023 – and now, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has handed down an early report on the scheme’s effectiveness. The verdict? Immediate childcare costs have fallen, but there’s plenty of work to be done… The idea is that families earning less than $530,000/year get a childcare subsidy. According to the regulator, while that cash injection has meant lower out-of-pocket costs after its introduction, childcare fees “have grown faster than inflation and wages” since July. Early Childhood Education Minister Anne Aly responded to the report by saying, “the market is not working for every child”, and “some form of intervention is going to be needed.”