This year the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment announced the Ear­ly Years Qual­i­ty Fund as part of its Nation­al Qual­i­ty Agen­da for ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion and care. There will be an addi­tion­al $300 mil­lion fund­ing to sup­port child­care ser­vice providers to pay a $3 per hour wage increase to Cer­tifi­cate III qual­i­fied edu­ca­tors. This offers a fan­tas­tic boost to the Child­care sec­tor and is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for child­care providers to raise the stan­dard of care pro­vid­ed with­out incur­ring busi­ness costs. To find out whether you are eli­gi­ble to receive this fund­ing, please see the Gov­ern­men­t’s defined set of eli­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ria.

To access this fund­ing, wage increas­es must be includ­ed in an enter­prise agree­ment. Enter­prise agree­ments are work­place agree­ments made between employ­ers and employ­ees about the terms and con­di­tions of employ­ment. Changes made to these agree­ments must under­go an approval process with the Fair Work Commission.

At Swaab we are more than equipped to assist you with putting in place the right agree­ment to access this won­der­ful fund­ing ini­tia­tive. Employ­ment part­ner War­wick Ryan spe­cialis­es in enter­pris­es agree­ments. Because of our work in this indus­try with oth­er inde­pen­dent oper­a­tors else­where in the state we can assist you with imple­ment­ing such an agree­ment at a sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduced fee.

If you would like to repub­lish this arti­cle, it is gen­er­al­ly approved, but pri­or to doing so please con­tact the Mar­ket­ing team at marketing@​swaab.​com.​au. This arti­cle is not legal advice and the views and com­ments are of a gen­er­al nature only. This arti­cle is not to be relied upon in sub­sti­tu­tion for detailed legal advice.

Publications

Where is my mind? The rise of con­tentious pro­bate pro­ceed­ings sur­round­ing the issue of tes­ta­men­tary capacity

In New South Wales, fam­i­ly pro­vi­sion and con­tentious pro­bate claims under the Suc­ces­sion Act 2006 (NSW) are increas­ing­ly focused on…

Kyle and Jack­ie O: The Work­place Rela­tions Law Perspective

The rela­tion­ship between show­busi­ness duos often comes to an acri­mo­nious end. Mar­tin and Lewis split at the height of their…

The Paper­cut Deci­sion and the Cur­rent Posi­tion on WFH

The FWC’s John­son v Paper­Cut Soft­ware deci­sion has renewed debate about the lim­its of work­ing from home rights. While some have…

In the News

Michael Byrnes appeared on The Quar­ter Hour, a radio indus­try pod­cast host­ed by Wade Kings­ley, to dis­cuss the legal aspects of the Kyle and Jack­ie O split, on 13 March 2026

Michael Byrnes appeared on The Quar­ter Hour, a radio indus­try pod­cast host­ed by Wade Kings­ley, to dis­cuss the legal aspects of the…

McK­night Tonight with Robert McK­night inter­views Michael Byrnes on the legal aspects of the Kyle and Jack­ie O split (from 28:25 to 51:00):

In this in‑depth inter­view, Michael Byrnes, Part­ner and employ­ment law spe­cial­ist, shares prac­ti­cal insights on work­place rela­tions, employ­ment law trends…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, DIY jus­tice: The surge of self-rep­re­sen­ta­tion and its toll on the jus­tice sys­tem”, pub­lished in Lawyers Week­ly on 11 March 2026

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“DIY jus­tice: The surge of self-rep­re­sen­ta­tion and its toll on the jus­tice sys­tem”…

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