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

Tem­po­rary Dis­con­for­mi­ty in Build­ing Defects: Myth, Not Law

The ​“tem­po­rary dis­con­for­mi­ty” argu­ment in con­struc­tion dis­putes sug­gests that defec­tive work iden­ti­fied before prac­ti­cal com­ple­tion is not a breach while the…

The impor­tance of a Request for Tender

Issu­ing a request for ten­der (RFT) is more than just secur­ing the best or low­est price. An RFT is your oppor­tu­ni­ty to man­age…

More Changes for Stra­ta — effec­tive 1 April 2026

The Fair Trad­ing and Build­ing Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment Bill 2026 was passed by par­lia­ment dur­ing Feb­ru­ary 2026 with the changes effec­tive on…

In the News

Michael Byrnes quot­ed in the arti­cle, Five legal ques­tions about Jack­ie Henderson’s law­suit against ARN answered”, pub­lished in Mum­brel­la on 2 April 2026

Michael Byrnes quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Five legal ques­tions about Jack­ie Henderson’s law­suit against ARN answered”, pub­lished in Mum­brel­la on…

Michael Byrnes appeared on the Game Chang­ers Radio pod­cast host­ed by Craig Bruce and Irene Hulme on 31 March 2026 to dis­cuss the legal pro­ceed­ings com­menced by Jack­ie O’ Hen­der­son against ARN

Michael Byrnes appeared on the Game Chang­ers Radio pod­cast host­ed by Craig Bruce and Irene Hulme on 31 March 202…

Michael Byrnes appeared on McK­night Tonight with Robert McK­night on 31 March 2026 to dis­cuss the legal pro­ceed­ings com­menced by Jack­ie O’ Hen­der­son against ARN (from 6:05 to 37:30)

Michael Byrnes appeared on McK­night Tonight with Robert McK­night on 31 March 2026 to dis­cuss the legal pro­ceed­ings com­menced by…

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