This afternoon the Federal Government pledged to support parents and childcare centres across the country during the coronavirus crisis.
According to the ABC, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that from Sunday childcare will become free for parents who continue to work during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Federal Government has also announced that it will provide financial support to 13,000 childcare centres across the country to ensure they continue to operate.
Mr Morrison said: "Childcare and early childhood education is critical, particularly for those Australians who rely on it so they can go to work every day. Critical areas are not just the obvious ones — it is not just the doctors or the nurses who are at the hospitals, it is the cleaners at the hospitals as well."
"If you have a job in this economy then that is an essential job, in my view, in terms of the running of the economy and it is important that all of those parents who have children, that they get access to child care and those facilities will be there for them in the many months ahead," he added.
Existing childcare arrangements will end this week and Australia will move to a different childcare system as of Sunday night. The new system will quite simply be one which means parents will get their childcare for free if they are working during the coronavirus pandemic.
This will no doubt be a big relief to the many parents that are trying to balance both working at home and parenting at the same time. But also, for those many others such as nurses and doctors that have been forced to leave their children in the care of others when they go to work.
Childcare shares surge higher.
Unsurprisingly, this news put a rocket under the G8 Education Ltd (ASX: GEM) share price this afternoon. The childcare centre operator's shares surged 28% higher to $1.08 before being placed in a trading halt.
It has been the same for the Think Childcare Ltd (ASX: TNK) share price, which is up a massive 33% at the time of writing.
