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Commonwealth act
The Child Care Act 1972 is a Commonwealth (federal) law that sets up a framework for the Australian Government to provide financial grants to support child care centres across the country. Here's the big picture:
The Act allows the federal government — through the Minister responsible — to hand out several types of grants to eligible child care operators:
The Act mainly affects:
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Direct links to the current provisions in Child Care Act 1972.
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View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
A qualifying child care centre must:
The Minister can also declare a place to be a child care centre even if it doesn't fully meet these criteria.
A significant part of the Act protects personal information held by the Department. It is a criminal offence (punishable by up to 2 years in jail) to:
There are limited exceptions — for example, the Secretary (head of the relevant government department) can authorise disclosure in the public interest, to other government agencies, or to the person the information is about. Guidelines must follow the Privacy Act 1988, and the Information Commissioner must be consulted before guidelines are made.
The Minister can set up a Child Care Standards Committee to give advice on the standards that child care centres should meet — covering buildings, equipment, and the services they provide. Committee members are appointed part-time and paid according to the Remuneration Tribunal (an independent body that sets pay for government appointments).
Grants come with strings attached. The government can:
This Act has been the backbone of Commonwealth support for community-based child care since 1972. It effectively excludes for-profit operators from receiving grants, channelling public money toward not-for-profit, charitable, and government-run child care providers. Its privacy protections ensure that sensitive information about families and services collected by the Department cannot be misused.