The average cost of daycare in Sydney is around $180 per day. If you have a child in care 4 days a week, that's more than $33k a year on daycare before the subsidy. For one child. And that's if you can even access it, which is an increasing issue in regional areas of Australia where there are childcare deserts, but also in major cities where people are registering their kids before they are even born.
Add to that, the motherhood penalty means women face a career and income hit for a decade after they have children. Women in Australia reduce their workforce participation when they have kids, and often never catch up to our global peers. To quote advocacy group, The Parenthood, "While the motherhood penalty persists everywhere, among developed countries few have done as little as Australia to tackle it."
This episode is with Georgie Dent, CEO of The Parenthood, Australia's leading parent advocacy organisation representing over 80,000 parents, carers and supporters.
Georgie is funny, opinionated, passionate and incredibly smart, and I hope you enjoy this conversation!