ABC’s latest Four Corners investigation has exposed ongoing safety concerns across Australia’s childcare industry, despite recent government reforms.

Some key findings from the investigation:

• More than 1,300 childcare services currently fail to meet national quality standards, affecting approximately 48,000 childcare places.
• 56% of Little Zak’s Academy centres have been subject to enforcement action in the past two years.
• Almost 600 regulatory breaches were confirmed across Little Zak’s centres between 2020 and September 2025, including 181 relating to supervision, discipline and child safety.
• More than a quarter of Only About Children’s centres have faced enforcement action over the past two years.
• Despite new government powers to withdraw childcare subsidies from poorly performing providers, neither of these major operators has been included in the funding crackdown.
• More than 70% of Australia’s long daycare services are operated by for-profit providers, despite not-for-profit and community-run centres generally achieving better quality ratings.

The investigation raises serious questions about regulatory oversight, transparency, and whether the current childcare funding model prioritises commercial interests over children’s safety.

With billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies flowing into the sector each year, are the government’s reforms going far enough to ensure childcare providers are being held accountable?

Source: ABC News / Four Corners, 27 October 2026

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-27/childcare-industry-faces-reckoning-but-safety-gaps-remain/107288858

Just a rant/looking for commiseration…

I was so excited for my baby to eat solids. Saw so many posts about babies excited to eat, mums from my mums group starting, and all the thing about BLW and cooking for baby.

My baby is 6.5 months old and has 0 interest. She will barely touch food let alone eat it despite putting literally everything else in her mouth. She’s mouthed a cucumber and that was the closest she got. Hoping a switch flips at some point and she decides she does actually want to eat!

Hey!

I'm planning out my return to work, and am just trying to work out what my morning routine would look like, and factor it into my morning commute.

How long does your morning drop off take? What does it involve?

Edit to add: she will be 14 months old. Idk if this makes a difference.

Hello I’m 11 months postpartum and my hands fingers and wrists started to ache a few weeks ago now they’re pretty achey especially at night and by the end of the day. I’ve been wearing a splint to bed on my right one as that’s worse and have been to physio but they’re still extremely sore. I’ve had an ultrasound and it was board line carpal tunnel mostly just inflammation. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

FTM to a very small baby boy. Had quite the eventful hospital stay which feels so long ago now and I can’t believe we’re still 2 weeks in - it feels like months have already passed since bub was born. Pre pregnancy I have always loved my sleep, and I knew sleep would never be the same after baby but the constant lack of sleep is taking a toll on me. I love my baby so so much, I think I actually had baby pinks on the first week, now I might have crashed and I’m just so tired. It doesn’t help that even though I feel like I’m not rested, I also am not able to keep up with the 2-3 hourly pumping on top of breastfeeding. I need to pump so we can provide him with top-ups (he needs this as he is very small). I only pump around 3 times a day and now that baby is feeding more frequently and taking in more milk, I don’t think my top-up stash can keep up. I feel overwhelmed :/ should I have a fixed routine by now and should I just really suck it up in terms of feeling tired all the time?

First off, I wanted to say thank you to everyone that replied to my previous post about when to start looking into childcare for bubby. I have since started looking at and booking in tours at daycares close to home to get on top of everything ASAP!

My next challenge for those willing to get involved, is providing any recommendations on questions I should be asking the service managers at each centre. 🥹

I have a few generic ones listed in my notes, but I’d prefer some other parents help me brainstorm questions in hopes I’ll come across some I haven’t thought to ask yet, especially the kind of questions which answers
might be different to each centre.

I greatly appreciate any participation as all the help makes everything feel less daunting! 🫶

Hi all
Just wondering if anyone had recently been to the park Hyatt since the maternity ward has been renovated? Is it worth the move ?
Any major negatives?
Thanks!!

Hey all,

Probably more of a rant than anything, but I am pregnant with my 3rd (1 living child) and my goodness, I am absolutely losing myself. Everything around me seems to be collapsing too. Just can’t seem to keep the stress down.

I am overwhelmed. It’s like 8 weeks until Christmas. All of my savings have just gone to my car breaking down, and now my partners car is breaking down. I am constantly pissed off, sad, and on edge.

I work part-time at a really mentally tiring job that starts at 4:40, finishes at 10-11pm at night. I would take on more but my partners work is more demanding of him staying back and being readily available so I can’t take on more than my 4 shifts a fortnight or it puts pressure on his job. My start time isn’t overly flexible either. I can save - it is just taking forever and I wasn’t expecting my car to gulp everything I had saved already. And my car isn’t even completely fixed. I am just playing catch up. I don’t have family to help, and I am going to start applying for daycares and a second job just to get ahead which is going to kill me as I am already having a mentally and physically difficult pregnancy. Hopefully I can get a second job and her into a daycare. Not what I want to do, but it feels like what I need to do.

All I want to do is give my almost 2 year old a good little Christmas. It’s even worse when we’re playing financial catch up and being added to christmas present groups, like yeah no, christmas is cancelled on our end lol. Sorry. We’ve been asked for money towards another family member’s kids Dirtbikes, i was a little taken a back, I was just going to get their kids some books or something.

Anyways,

Cost of living sucks, screw cars AND pregnancy is HARD. My goodness.

Hi so we’re extremely lucky that my mum (who lives with us) will be taking care of our 6 month old when I head back to work early next year.

The first two months I’ll only be doing 3 days a week (2 days wfh) then back to full time by the time he’s 13 mo (I think I can negotiate 3 days wfh). My SO is a teacher and doesn’t do long hours except for like 2 weeks a term.

Anyways, we don’t want to overwhelm her (retired, active and goes to the gym multiple times a week, late 60s) with full time childcare so we’re considering doing one short day (6hrs) a week of sending Bub to childcare so she doesn’t have to do it 5 days a week.

I’ve found one centre with great reviews (we are visiting next week) that can do one day a week.

Has anyone else done just one day a week for your baby? I’ve read stuff on reddit saying that it can be disruptive to your kid and they’ll struggle to adapt with just one day a week. Is this your experience? Is this not worth it? Should we do 2 days (not really keen on this)
My mum is actually against us sending him to childcare but I don’t want to cause her to burn out

TLDR: How bad would it be for a 13 month old to attend just one day a week of day care?

My first babies are my little dogs, with whom I have lived for the last decade. They are both technically “seniors” but are still very energetic and puppy-like. I have a somewhat codependent relationship with them. They’re both small and don’t really seem to want that much exercise etc, but they both love snuggles and cuddles - frequently. I am due in a couple of months with my first, and I am so fearful that I won’t be able to give them the attention they deserve. And while I hope they live forever, I’m mindful that they are in their older years now, and they deserve all of the special care while they’re still here on this earth. Maybe I’m just feeling emotional with pregnancy hormones - but can anyone reassure me that my furry babies will still have a good quality of life, and will still know how much I adore them, when baby comes? At the moment, they’re my whole world 😭

Hi everyone!

I'm curious how much others spent during pregnancy and preparing for their baby's arrival.

I'd love to hear your approximate costs for:

• appointments (GP, midwife, specialist visits)
• tests/scans (ultrasounds, NIPT, blood tests)
• hospital/birth in the public system
• classes etc

How much did you spend overall? Were there any unexpected costs, or things you'd recommend saving money on?

Would especially love to hear from those who went through the public system in Victoria. Thanks! 😊

looking for summer shoes for my 18mo that can get wet? for moments I don't want her barefoot but she will likely get her feet soaked... ive been looking online and only getting more confused. plus the sizing... wth?

Background context: Our almost 3yo has been toilet trained since April this year. I would say we’ve had a relatively smooth time with this, we used a sticker chart at home for rewards when he showed interest, we didn’t force him, just went with his cues.

In that initial first week of training, he was nervous to poo at daycare, but we got over that after the first week and it was all good. It’s been smooth enough that we haven’t even used nappies overnights since the start of June because he said he didn’t want to wear them. We totally expected to have some overnight accidents since then but have only had one to deal with.

Problem: for the last month, he has stopped pooing in the toilet at daycare and has been doing it in his undies. He doesn’t do this at home, he always tells us when he needs to go and even takes himself there.

We’ve been talking with the educators about it and what to do and they’ve just been saying it happens and he’ll get there. They talk to him about it to and give him opportunities throughout the day to go but he only tells them after his done it.

I don’t know what more we can do to encourage him to do it in the toilet at daycare. We’ve tried buying him special undies that we don’t want to throw away (daycare policy and literally in this economy, I am sick of buying undies just for them to be thrown away), have tried the rewards of a special car when he does a poo. Nothing is sticking. It’s frustrating because he tells us that he’s done it and he’s sad about.

Any advice welcomed, I am pulling my hair out.

Hi all,

I am looking for a short sleeve button up shirt for my 9 month old for Christmas day.

We usually dress up for Christmas, wearing our Christmas best.

I have looked at next, iconic, David Jones, Myer, purebaby, best and less, Kmart eetc.

Haven't found anything I like.

I'd prefer a louder pattern, nothing with typical boy prints (dinosaurs, cars trucks etc). My family typically wear what we call shit shirts (a nice but loud,colourful pattern not Hawaiian etc).

Up to 60aud.

Can anyone recommend a site?

Thanks

Hello!

I just want to come in and have some advice. I had my ectopic laparoscopy 2nd week of Aug and had my 1st period 3rd week of september.

Now, I am 3 days late for my next period and I tested yesterday; it was negative. But I feel like I am pregnant(?) because some of the symptoms im having right now is similar to my 1st pregnancy like cramps, white slimy dishcharge and blood when wiping (brown and red)

Is it possible i am pregnant or its just that my period still adjusting from the ectopic pregnancy?

Thank you for your insights

hello! i’m looking for nanny to help look after our 3mth old baby for a week. unfortunately both my partner and i currently have an injury. we just need help with settling baby/carrying baby throughout the day until we both get better, as our injury gets worse with movement.

unfortunately we don’t have family here.

we are in melbourne.

baby turned 6 months today. I am returning to work full time in 2 weeks, baby girl doing a mix of nana, childcare and daddy.
These past two weeks i have been utterly exhausted. I have no motivation no desire for anything. I’m bored out of my mind. I mix up between crying because I don’t wanna seperate from her, and then I’ve had enough of her. She’s been fighting all naps. I feel
like i’m failing at food with her. I feel so unsupported by everyone. Sometimes i feel like a single mum even though i’ve got a husband. I just want to cry all the time.

I have been perfectly fine for a long time. The first 8 weeks of her life i was sooo depressed, but then i was perfectly ok. But now it’s just gone downhill again.

I’ll be looking at moving her into her own room shortly because i’ve just started co sleeping again because it’s the only way I can rest.

Im deciding to go with pads rather than nappies for postpartum as I can’t find a nappy in my size. I did get a sample from depend but it felt too bunched up between the legs. Im looking for the longest pad possible as I don’t want any leakage. Can anyone recommend any?

What are your favourite free soft play areas in Sydney for babies?

I've got an 8 month old who's commando crawling and we're also working on building his strength to start climbing etc.

He's not quite at the stage where I think it's worth going to a kids cafe but we have been taking him to the free soft play area at our local shopping centre (Rhodes) and he enjoys it so we're looking for more soft play areas so we've got a bit of variety.

Hi all,

As the title says, we are travelling domestically with qantas tomorrow and it will be the first time we travel with our butterfly 2+. We have the travel bag too, but I just wanted to check if anyone has had issues flying with it before and being forced to check it in?

I’ve seen conflicting information that it doesn’t fit the dimensions but the bugaboo website says it’s cabin approved.

We have the Bugaboo travel bag for the pram, so we were going to approach the gate with it all packed up in, but just wanted to see if people still had issues?

We are also travelling internationally with it in December via Singapore Airlines and Air France, so insight into people’s experiences with those airlines and this pram would be great too!

Thanks a lot!

I’m really curious of other people’s experiences in corporate workplaces whilst in late stage pregnancy.

I work exceptionally hard, often taking on more than required, working overtime or through lunch. When I’m sick, which is rare, I always provide a medical certificate and work in office three days a week as required (two hour commute each way!). Today, after constantly giving to a company, I kindly asked for some support.

I’m 30 weeks pregnant and have about 4 weeks to go before I go on maternity leave. I asked my manager if I was able to work one extra day from home for the next 3 weeks as a special accommodation as the commute has been quite tough. The answer was a flat out “no”. He said it would then be unfair to others and nobody else has that set up. I’m not asking for this permanently and when I pointed out that a couple of others in our team seemed to work an extra day from home each week, he said they’d put in a flexible working request.

I can’t help but feel it’s a bit ridiculous that they can’t make a small exception for three weeks. I’m not asking to work the whole three weeks from home, just one extra day which would mean I still go into the office two days per week. I also currently have the largest portfolio of my team and I’m busy all day (I have a very face to face, high visibility role).

Has anyone had a similar experience?

I’m a dad about to go on parental leave with my 15-month-old and looking for recommendations for a good everyday backpack.

Ideally something that can fit nappies, wipes, spare clothes, a lunchbox, water bottle and a few of my own things (wallet, keys, etc.).

Not necessarily looking for a dedicated nappy bag, just a practical, comfortable backpack that’s easy to organise and take out for the day.

Would love recommendations for bags people have actually used and liked, preferably ones available in Australia.
What are you all using?