It was anticipated that at least $1 million would be spent during the next three years on research and evaluation of childcare centres, the minister for Labour and National Service, Mr Lynch said. Introducing the Child Care Bill in the House of Representatives, which gave effect to budget proposals for daycare facilities, he said that $200,000 would be spent during the remainder of the financial year.

The purpose was to help the children of working and other parents insofar as they were deprived of proper care, either because good quality facilities were not available or because the cost was too high.

The Bill provided for special recurrent grants to enable centres to offer reduced fees to children from low income and other families in financial need.

The grant may be up to $8 a week for a child under three years of age and $6 for three years and over.

Funds for capital and recurrent grants amounting to $4.8 million had been provided for the current financial year.

"These facilities should be available at a cost that is not prohibitive to parents, especially to parents of children in special need", the minister said.

This included one-parent families, newly-arrived migrants, low-income groups generally and families where one of the parents was sick.

Of particular concern was the situation where young children were left in the care of untrained and unsupervised childminders who did not have the facilities conducive to the social and emotional development of children.

See https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/11016859