Latest news with #CCS
Business Recorder
17 hours ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
FBR to suspend terminals, dry ports lacking infrastructure, IT compliance
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to suspend/cancel registration of terminal operators of sea port/off-dock terminal/dry port or land border station, which fails to fulfil minimum requirements of infrastructure, information technology and documentation etc. The FBR has issued customs general order (CGO) 7 of 2025 to tighten monitoring and supervision of terminal operators. The FBR's procedure revealed that according to rule 548 of the Customs Rules, 2001, every terminal operator conducting terminal operations under the Customs Computerized System (CCS) is required to fulfil the minimum requirements specified under rule 554 relating to building and infrastructure, examination facilities, secure environment. information technology and documentation. 'Pakistan needs integrated dry port strategy to decentralise economic activity' The provisions of rules 548 to 554 are mutatis mutandis applicable on off-dock terminal operators in terms of rule 554A. The off-dock terminal operators are further obliged to fulfil the requirements mentioned in pare 3 of the guidelines issued by the Federal Board of Revenue in July 2024. Moreover, the aforesaid provisions are equally applicable on dry ports and land border stations registered as terminal operators in the CCS. To ensure regular and periodic verification of the minimum requirements provided under Customs Rules, the following instructions are being issued for strict compliance by all concerned: i); Inspection of the minimum requirements or conditions at sea terminal, off-dock terminal, dry port or land border station as the case may be, will be carried out every six months by the concerned regulatory collectorate. The inspection report will categorically state the level of availability of each specific requirement as envisaged in rule 554 or 554A. as the case may be. ii); In case, any shortcomings or deficiencies are pointed out in the inspection report, the respective terminal operator of sea port/ off-dock terminal/ dry port or land border station, will be intimated in writing to fulfil the same within fifteen days and submit compliance report to the Collectorate. iii); Where the terminal operator of sea port / off-dock terminal/ dry poet or land border station fails to comply with requirement or does not respond to the inspection report, the Regulatory Collector shall initiate proceedings for suspension/ cancellation of registration of the terminal operator in terms of the provisions of rule 553 of the Customs Rules, 2001 read with Section 155F of the Customs Act, 1969. iv); Where the registration of terminal operator of sea port / off-dock terminal/ dry port or land border station, is suspended or cancelled in terms of rule 553 for the reasons mentioned above, the same will be restored if the Regulatory Collector is satisfied that they have complied with the requirements envisaged under the rules. The Regulatory Collectorate shall forward compliance report to the Board in respect of each terminal operator after every six months, FBR added. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Scotland's largest power plant faces a final reckoning
Yet, the industry, now imperiled by the attempted drive towards net zero, must adapt or die. Peterhead Power Station began operation in 1982, and will be nearly 60 years old when it is decommissioned in a decade and a half. First an oil-powered station, the fuel of choice was switched to fossil gas at the dawn of the 21st century. It was Scotland's largest climate polluter between 2018 and 2020, and again in 2022, while producing electricity for thousands of homes across the UK. I should know. Peterhead Power Station was fully operational in 1982. (Image: SSE) I walked past its gas turbines every day for three years. As I waited for the bus to take me 30 miles south to Aberdeen University, a steady stream of cars would make the journey in the opposite direction, towards the plant. Now, plans have been drawn up for a second power station — one which developers SSE say will incorporate carbon capture and storage (CCS) in a bid to catch 95% of the plant's emissions. Peterhead, a town of 20,000 known for its fishing industry, is poised to play a 'very strategic' role in the nation's energy grid, Helen Sanders tells me. Head of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at SSE, Sanders has led public engagement on the firm's low-carbon initiatives. She notes: 'Peterhead is a very strategic place when it comes to our national energy grid, and we've been looking at carbon capture in the north east of Scotland for a significant period of time. 'We cannot have a power system based solely on renewables. To use a cliche,' she adds, 'What happens when the sun doesn't shine and the wind won't blow? Peterhead is really plugged in and very well placed in that regard.' Read more: While the efficacy of CCS has long been debated, SSE claims it will be able to secure 95% of emissions, capturing particles in the air and sending them deep under the North Sea via pipeline. Sanders says: 'Nobody is doing more for the decarbonisation of the power system than SSE. We've been working with a world-class consortium to test our carbon capture plan. 'Our project requires government investment, and in order to receive funding, we need to meet certain standards of carbon capture.' SSE has been the target of climate activists. However, her claims are countered by environmental campaigner Alex Lee, who works for Friends of the Earth Scotland as a 'false solutions campaigner'. Lee, who specialises in CCS and fossil hydrogen research, told me that SSE's top figure of 95% was 'conjecture,' adding: 'I'm very interested to know the research and real world evidence behind their claims. 'Carbon capture and storage has never been done on a gas power station. Even when it's been done before in the power sector, it's largely been a failure.' My conversation with Sanders turns to the issue of job creation. 'The existing station is a good framework,' she informs me. 'It has 80 full time employees as well as support workers and contractors and graduates who are onsite. We work with local educational institutes to provide apprenticeship opportunities. 'There will be significant investment during the construction period, with 1000 jobs expected to be created, and the carbon capture scheme will support 240 jobs once commissioned and operational.' Previous carbon capture schemes in the area have fallen through, notably in 2006 and 2011, so I ask Sanders what the difference will be this time around. 'Net Zero is a game changer,' she responds. 'Peterhead is an anchor project for the CCS scheme [known as Acorn] and will underpin the entire system.' With a £22bn commitment by the UK Government at the end of last year, it appears both parties are keen to see the technology released in the north east. That's something Lee herself has observed, from the other side of the fight. 'There is a broad political consensus from the SNP and UK Labour and the Tories in support of carbon capture and storage,' they note. 'There's a key reason. The oil and gas lobby is massive. For every day Holyrood is in session, there is an oil and gas meeting. 'It's easier to pretend carbon capture is a 'magic bullet' than to change structures and systems. That's where the political consensus is coming from.' What do people in the region think about the plant? Unsurprisingly, activists and developers tell me different things. SSE claims that the plant will bring an influx of jobs and economic development to the area. Sanders quips: 'Locally, the response has been very supportive. People are keen to see investments. They know it can revitalise the north east of Scotland and set it up to thrive in a Net Zero world. 'I remember attending one of our community engagement meetings in the town and people were asking why we hadn't done this sooner.' Petehead is home to the largest fishing port in Europe. (Image: Getty) She invites me to visit Peterhead, and says the firm would be happy to show me around the plant. 'Well,' I say, 'I'll do you one better. I've looked out my window and seen the power plant more times than I can count.' 'Ah,' Sanders replies. 'I see why you're interested in this.' A shiny video on SSE's website celebrates the impact it has on the region. In an interview, one suited and booted worker says: 'We know it's a really hard time for local charities, business, and organisations. So to see SSE stepping up and getting involved locally with local people and community groups to help support them is really important.' Read more: Yet, Michelle Marshall, who works for Friends of the Earth, has a different view. She is a mum-of-two who has lived in Boddam for a decade, in the shadow of the power plant. We first met when she was fighting to save the community's library, which was mothballed over the winter. Marshall tells me that her community is already suffering. She says: 'Peterhead and Boddam have seen colossal cuts that are already affecting so many people. What we need is to see our sheltered housing stay open, for the new Community Campus to be built, our libraries reinstated, access to better healthcare and the reinstating of our nighttime A&E service. 'What we don't need is more pollution, more risk of flooding, and more risk to our health. We do not need a new gas guzzling power station when we deserve good, well-funded public services and community spaces.' It's a trying time for the residents of the north-east, this I know. A hardy and proud people, they have been worn down by decades of economic stagnation and neglect by a series of governments. They are those who live in the shadows; of the oil and gas industry, the energy companies, and yes, the looming power plant. And now, it's hard to shake the feeling that in the corporate boardrooms and halls of power in London and the central belt, their future is being decided for them.
The Age
2 days ago
- General
- The Age
The care fracture: how shocking abuse allegations have hit mothers
Writing on the professional women's website Women's Agenda this week, The Parenthood chief executive Georgie Dent also named this mother-blame phenomenon: 'In this moment of national grief and reckoning, the last thing families need is guilt piled on top of their fear and distress,' she wrote. 'And yet, some are using this crisis to argue that parents (but mostly mums) should just stay home – as if that's a real or simple choice for most families.' The blame and shame comments have been posted online on news articles about the abuse allegations, and in parenting forums on social media. On the longstanding parenting site Kidspot, columnist Lauren Robinson said she also uses childcare and noted: 'I'm sick of seeing that decision twisted into some suggestion of parental neglect.' Dr Emily Musgrove, resident psychologist on the hit podcast The Imperfects, on Thursday alluded to the resurfacing of the similarly enduring myth 'that the mum is available and responsible at all times'. 'My sense is we [mothers in this generation] are getting so much more exposed to guilt because we are violating this idealised mother role,' she said. Loading Numbers of women working are at a record high, as are numbers of children in early learning centres, supported by government policies encouraging women back to work. That backward ideas about working mothers have re-emerged following childcare abuse allegations has troubled advocates, especially as policies now exist to also support fathers to participate in childcare. The proportion of Australians grappling with juggling work and family care is not insignificant. In the March quarter of 2025, approximately 1,444,410 children from 1,015,790 families in Australia were using Child Care Subsidy (CCS)-approved care. These children attended an average of 27.5 hours of care per week. Data from the Australian Institute of Family Studies shows that as of the March quarter last year, 48 per cent of one-year-olds were enrolled in CCS-approved childcare services, up from 39 per cent in 2015. 'We are seeing an increasing proportion of new mothers remaining in employment after childbirth, with the proportion of employed mothers of an under-one-year-old increasing from 30 per cent in 1991 to 57 per cent in 2021,' a spokeswoman says. But academics including Melbourne University sociology professor Leah Ruppanner say the psychological burden of the tension between government policies – and economic conditions – that encourage both parents to work soon after having babies is still assigned primarily to mothers. Ruppanner's book, Drained, on women as the disproportionate mental load-bearers of parenting comes out next year. Anxiety triggered by disturbing childcare-abuse news is likely to also be felt by fathers, she said, but social pressure and responsibility for care of young children is still squarely on women. 'Mothers have an incredible amount of guilt, especially around whether they're being 'good' mothers, and now the energy of thinking about safety is just going to add one more layer to the mental load,' she says. 'We've been told women are solely responsible for the future of their children so you'd better not mess it up ... People think [mothers] have these open choices, but they don't. They're constrained economically, attitudinally.' Though she gains great satisfaction from her career as a registered psychologist south-west of Sydney, Alysha-Leigh Femeli says she has felt this tension between leaving young children in care – even during 'a very slow transition' – and the fulfilment of re-engaging in her work. She has treated families in the perinatal period for 13 years and is told by clients that they are so distressed by the recent child abuse allegations they are questioning if they should keep working. It is a sentiment voiced by one distressed mother interviewed on TV as she collected her toddler from Creative Gardens, the childcare centre at which alleged offender Joshua Dale Brown worked in south-western Melbourne. As the Victorian Department of Health prepared to text families of 1200 children aged five months to two years old, urging them to arrange STI tests for their babies and toddlers, the mother said she was questioning whether she should work. Loading Femeli says this is not an uncommon response. 'Women are terrified, really terrified, and I've had people wondering whether they should just pull their kids out of care because they feel so scared – this feels like something they hadn't even anticipated as an option. 'For a lot of women, working is a really important part of caring for their mental health,' she says. To have a break from [constantly caring for young children] can also be 'an important part of making sure they are wonderful mothers,' she says. Even so, 'I found it really hard going back to work, I had families [to see] but I felt heartbroken at the idea I would leave my babies … 'But I would always come back from work feeling really rejuvenated, like I'd gotten to use my brain; it was important for me to do be able to do that.' Femeli, a member of the Australian Association of Psychologists, describes the 'spike of anxiety' mothers may already feel when returning to work, and says it is driven by stubborn gender stereotypes. 'There is still a societal expectation that women will be the primary caregivers regardless of how much they are working: so you are going to 'fail' somewhere, either your employers or your responsibilities as a caregiver,' she says. 'I don't think I have a perinatal client who hasn't come with some level of guilt because they've had to go to work.' Unlike those in some European and Nordic countries, Australian culture expects mothers to take responsibility for childcare even when they are working and the mother's income is vital, she says. Yet mothers tell Femeli their sense is that their employment is considered more 'disposable'. Though the gender equality movement has fought to shift assumptions about parenting and women's right to participate in employment, clients feel the message still received is, 'when a woman comes back to work, it's almost like someone is doing her a favour by letting her come back'. And this is concerning. Femeli is among those calling for better support for mothers and families as they juggle financial imperatives and their need to provide quality care to babies and very young children, as she believes getting women into work has been a higher priority than supporting mothers and children. She urges mothers who may feel consumed with worry or guilt as a result of recent news to realise it is not normal and to speak to their GP rather than decide on changing their work pattern while feeling unsettled. As rates of young mothers working full-time increase, workplace gender equality consultant Prue Gilbert says corporate women are also reporting rising feelings of guilt, more so than in previous years. 'We are hearing in coaching that women are returning to work earlier [after having babies] than they have done in the past, and are more likely to be going back full-time,' says Gilbert, chief executive of the workplace/parents consultancy Grace Papers. On May 15, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released data showing women's participation in the workforce had reached a record high of 63.4 per cent. A general rise in employment participation 'was strongest for women workers, increasing by 65,000, including 42,000 full-time jobs'. 'The data indicates the federal government's commitment to Early Childhood Education and Care and working women's rights is helping more women to find and stay in secure jobs,' the bureau stated. Loading Gilbert says feelings of guilt came through as she reviewed coaching insights: 'Guilt kept on coming up in themes. We haven't heard it so strongly in quite a number of years.' She wonders if the earlier work return, driven by economic uncertainty and organisational restructuring, is contributing. Ironically, use-it-or-lose it parental leave policies for fathers, which mean they need to take their entitlement within the first 12 months of the baby's life or forfeit it, are contributing to mothers' earlier return to employment. This phenomenon has also crossed the radar of the Assistant Minister for Social Services, Ged Kearney. 'I went back to work seven weeks after my twins were born – it was a difficult choice, but the right one for me,' Kearney says. 'What made things even harder was the judgment I faced – it's horrible that in the 2020s we're still having this conversation. 'No parent should feel guilty for going or not going back to work and every parent deserves to know their children are safe and cared for.' As her government prepares to bring legislation to parliament to cut off funding to early education centres that put profit over child safety, Georgie Dent continues to put pressure on it to create an independent national early childhood commission, as recommended by the Productivity Commission's landmark review. It would oversee safety, quality, access, workforce and funding, and ensure children are protected and services are accountable – reassurance parents need. Loading 'For so many households with young children, they are having a really hard time: financially, economically ... it's a luxury position to be able to stay afloat on one income,' says Dent. 'I have seen an unprecedented level of anguish and distress among parents … and been thinking about how it's so cruel to add guilt on top of that.'
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
The care fracture: how shocking abuse allegations have hit mothers
Writing on the professional women's website Women's Agenda this week, The Parenthood chief executive Georgie Dent also named this mother-blame phenomenon: 'In this moment of national grief and reckoning, the last thing families need is guilt piled on top of their fear and distress,' she wrote. 'And yet, some are using this crisis to argue that parents (but mostly mums) should just stay home – as if that's a real or simple choice for most families.' The blame and shame comments have been posted online on news articles about the abuse allegations, and in parenting forums on social media. On the longstanding parenting site Kidspot, columnist Lauren Robinson said she also uses childcare and noted: 'I'm sick of seeing that decision twisted into some suggestion of parental neglect.' Dr Emily Musgrove, resident psychologist on the hit podcast The Imperfects, on Thursday alluded to the resurfacing of the similarly enduring myth 'that the mum is available and responsible at all times'. 'My sense is we [mothers in this generation] are getting so much more exposed to guilt because we are violating this idealised mother role,' she said. Loading Numbers of women working are at a record high, as are numbers of children in early learning centres, supported by government policies encouraging women back to work. That backward ideas about working mothers have re-emerged following childcare abuse allegations has troubled advocates, especially as policies now exist to also support fathers to participate in childcare. The proportion of Australians grappling with juggling work and family care is not insignificant. In the March quarter of 2025, approximately 1,444,410 children from 1,015,790 families in Australia were using Child Care Subsidy (CCS)-approved care. These children attended an average of 27.5 hours of care per week. Data from the Australian Institute of Family Studies shows that as of the March quarter last year, 48 per cent of one-year-olds were enrolled in CCS-approved childcare services, up from 39 per cent in 2015. 'We are seeing an increasing proportion of new mothers remaining in employment after childbirth, with the proportion of employed mothers of an under-one-year-old increasing from 30 per cent in 1991 to 57 per cent in 2021,' a spokeswoman says. But academics including Melbourne University sociology professor Leah Ruppanner say the psychological burden of the tension between government policies – and economic conditions – that encourage both parents to work soon after having babies is still assigned primarily to mothers. Ruppanner's book, Drained, on women as the disproportionate mental load-bearers of parenting comes out next year. Anxiety triggered by disturbing childcare-abuse news is likely to also be felt by fathers, she said, but social pressure and responsibility for care of young children is still squarely on women. 'Mothers have an incredible amount of guilt, especially around whether they're being 'good' mothers, and now the energy of thinking about safety is just going to add one more layer to the mental load,' she says. 'We've been told women are solely responsible for the future of their children so you'd better not mess it up ... People think [mothers] have these open choices, but they don't. They're constrained economically, attitudinally.' Though she gains great satisfaction from her career as a registered psychologist south-west of Sydney, Alysha-Leigh Femeli says she has felt this tension between leaving young children in care – even during 'a very slow transition' – and the fulfilment of re-engaging in her work. She has treated families in the perinatal period for 13 years and is told by clients that they are so distressed by the recent child abuse allegations they are questioning if they should keep working. It is a sentiment voiced by one distressed mother interviewed on TV as she collected her toddler from Creative Gardens, the childcare centre at which alleged offender Joshua Dale Brown worked in south-western Melbourne. As the Victorian Department of Health prepared to text families of 1200 children aged five months to two years old, urging them to arrange STI tests for their babies and toddlers, the mother said she was questioning whether she should work. Loading Femeli says this is not an uncommon response. 'Women are terrified, really terrified, and I've had people wondering whether they should just pull their kids out of care because they feel so scared – this feels like something they hadn't even anticipated as an option. 'For a lot of women, working is a really important part of caring for their mental health,' she says. To have a break from [constantly caring for young children] can also be 'an important part of making sure they are wonderful mothers,' she says. Even so, 'I found it really hard going back to work, I had families [to see] but I felt heartbroken at the idea I would leave my babies … 'But I would always come back from work feeling really rejuvenated, like I'd gotten to use my brain; it was important for me to do be able to do that.' Femeli, a member of the Australian Association of Psychologists, describes the 'spike of anxiety' mothers may already feel when returning to work, and says it is driven by stubborn gender stereotypes. 'There is still a societal expectation that women will be the primary caregivers regardless of how much they are working: so you are going to 'fail' somewhere, either your employers or your responsibilities as a caregiver,' she says. 'I don't think I have a perinatal client who hasn't come with some level of guilt because they've had to go to work.' Unlike those in some European and Nordic countries, Australian culture expects mothers to take responsibility for childcare even when they are working and the mother's income is vital, she says. Yet mothers tell Femeli their sense is that their employment is considered more 'disposable'. Though the gender equality movement has fought to shift assumptions about parenting and women's right to participate in employment, clients feel the message still received is, 'when a woman comes back to work, it's almost like someone is doing her a favour by letting her come back'. And this is concerning. Femeli is among those calling for better support for mothers and families as they juggle financial imperatives and their need to provide quality care to babies and very young children, as she believes getting women into work has been a higher priority than supporting mothers and children. She urges mothers who may feel consumed with worry or guilt as a result of recent news to realise it is not normal and to speak to their GP rather than decide on changing their work pattern while feeling unsettled. As rates of young mothers working full-time increase, workplace gender equality consultant Prue Gilbert says corporate women are also reporting rising feelings of guilt, more so than in previous years. 'We are hearing in coaching that women are returning to work earlier [after having babies] than they have done in the past, and are more likely to be going back full-time,' says Gilbert, chief executive of the workplace/parents consultancy Grace Papers. On May 15, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released data showing women's participation in the workforce had reached a record high of 63.4 per cent. A general rise in employment participation 'was strongest for women workers, increasing by 65,000, including 42,000 full-time jobs'. 'The data indicates the federal government's commitment to Early Childhood Education and Care and working women's rights is helping more women to find and stay in secure jobs,' the bureau stated. Loading Gilbert says feelings of guilt came through as she reviewed coaching insights: 'Guilt kept on coming up in themes. We haven't heard it so strongly in quite a number of years.' She wonders if the earlier work return, driven by economic uncertainty and organisational restructuring, is contributing. Ironically, use-it-or-lose it parental leave policies for fathers, which mean they need to take their entitlement within the first 12 months of the baby's life or forfeit it, are contributing to mothers' earlier return to employment. This phenomenon has also crossed the radar of the Assistant Minister for Social Services, Ged Kearney. 'I went back to work seven weeks after my twins were born – it was a difficult choice, but the right one for me,' Kearney says. 'What made things even harder was the judgment I faced – it's horrible that in the 2020s we're still having this conversation. 'No parent should feel guilty for going or not going back to work and every parent deserves to know their children are safe and cared for.' As her government prepares to bring legislation to parliament to cut off funding to early education centres that put profit over child safety, Georgie Dent continues to put pressure on it to create an independent national early childhood commission, as recommended by the Productivity Commission's landmark review. It would oversee safety, quality, access, workforce and funding, and ensure children are protected and services are accountable – reassurance parents need. Loading 'For so many households with young children, they are having a really hard time: financially, economically ... it's a luxury position to be able to stay afloat on one income,' says Dent. 'I have seen an unprecedented level of anguish and distress among parents … and been thinking about how it's so cruel to add guilt on top of that.'
West Australian
2 days ago
- Business
- West Australian
Childcare in Perth: Daycare centres charging over maximum rate cap as daily prices surge above $200
More than one third of childcare centres are charging fees above the maximum recommended by the Federal Government — the highest percentage since the subsidy was introduced in 2018 — as daily prices in Perth surge to above $200 in some suburbs. According to Federal Government data, 34.9 per cent of childcare centres in Australia had hourly fees over the maximum rate cap of $14.29 in the March quarter, compared to 29.9 per cent in the previous quarter and 12.5 per cent five years ago. The hourly-fee cap is set by the Government as a guide for what a 'high fee' might be, and it's the maximum rate the government will subsidise. A family's Child Care Subsidy percentage applies to the lowest of either the cap, or the hourly fee charged by their childcare provider, so families pay the difference when childcare centres charge above the cap. Last Monday, July 7, the CCS hourly rate cap increased to $14.63 in line with the Consumer Price Index. But the industry has warned the rise is not enough. Rachelle Tucker, the chief executive of the Australian Childcare Alliance WA, said the increase in centres charging above the hourly cap was concerning from an affordability perspective. 'But it is a reflection of the growing gap between the actual cost of delivering quality early learning and the CCS system's capped rates,' she said. 'The fee cap has not kept pace with the real costs of service delivery, especially for services in high-cost areas or those with higher staffing needs to support quality ratios and educational outcomes.' She added it was important to note that charging above the cap did not necessarily mean services were over-charging. 'It often means they are trying to cover their genuine operating costs,' she said. The revelations come at a time of turmoil for the sector, with educators, parents and providers reeling from allegations against Victorian man Joshua Dale Brown, who was charged with dozens of child sex offences allegedly committed against eight children at a Melbourne childcare centre. The WA Government has ordered a snap review of child safety in the State in light of the allegations. Last weekend, The West Australian revealed that hundreds of WA childcare centres either don't meet minimum quality standards or are yet to be rated. The State has the lowest proportion of centres that exceed the minimum standards, and none of its almost 1500 childcare services are rated 'excellent'. Government data shows fees in WA have increased by 15 per cent or $1.90 an hour in the past two years, to an average of $13.90 an hour across the country. Daily fees across Perth have hit $200 — before the CCS — in some areas. In response to a Facebook post on a parents' forum this week, dozens of Perth mothers shared their daily fees, starting as low as $119 and reaching $215. The six Schools of Early Learning are among the most expensive. Its North Perth centre has a two-day minimum costing $424. The price decreases each additional day to $905 for five days. Last year the Federal Government announced a 15 per cent pay rise for almost 200,000 childcare educators as part of a $3.6 billion package — but centres could only access the funding if they agreed to cap any fee increases at 4.4 per cent. Ms Tucker said while many centres had done their best to remain within the cap, 'the reality is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to absorb the rising costs of operating without passing some of those costs on to families. 'The cap is a blunt instrument that doesn't account for the significant cost increases in wages, utilities, food, rent, and compliance,' she said. 'Services are trying to balance affordability for families with the financial sustainability required to maintain quality and retain staff. Many services are operating on very tight margins, with little financial buffer.' Minister for Early Childhood Education Jess Walsh said the Government's early childhood education reforms, introduced two years ago, had delivered relief to more than one million families. 'For a family earning $168,000, with one child in care 30 hours a week, our reforms have cut out-of-pocket costs by around $7440 than they otherwise would be,' she said. 'We want to make sure workers can be fairly paid without the costs being passed onto families.' The Government is taking compliance action against centres that breach the 4.4 per cent fee cap, but it is understood the vast majority of centres have kept within the rules.
