The lack of childcare places in Lismore and Goonellabah was highlighted today when Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan and Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education Angie Bell hosted young mothers along with two Early Childhood and Care providers in Goonellabah.

Mr Hogan said the issue across the region is very serious, highlighting the fact that mothers who try and register their children in an appropriate facility while pregnant still have to wait 12 to 18 months for their children to be accepted.

"Of course, that defeats the purpose, Mr Hogan said, "I mean, this isn't a permanent thing that you need this care for. You need it when your babies are born and when they're young, and we just haven't got the spots here, and the affordability of it is quite atrocious."

Mr Hogan told the story of a young mum, Rachel Lane, who is trying to make a difficult situation work.

"Rachael works at night packing shelves. She works from seven o'clock till midnight, gets home and gets to sleep about two o'clock," Mr Hogan said, "She wakes up about five o'clock to look after her child and then her husband works the day shift, so they don't get to see each other, and they're working outside of hours. This is a very stressful situation for them because part of it is, they couldn't get a childcare spot as well."

(From left: Jaclyn, Evie, Rachael and Sadie in Goonellabah this morning)

Jaclyn Pilbeam told her story about trying to get 13-month-old Evie into daycare. Currently, Evie attends a daycare facility in Tintenbar.

"I'm a young mum, and we had our daughter Evie on a daycare list before she was even born. Which, to me, just doesn't seem like how things should be in our country. She's still on waiting lists and even goes to a daycare that is 20 to 30 minutes from our house. It's not ideal for our family."

"We need better than that. I need to go to work. I'd love to stay at home with my children and look after my children, but it's just not an option for me. We need more (centres) in our area. We're still missing daycares from the flood. It's just a very, very difficult time for a lot of families. A lot of pressure that we already don't need. There's a cost of living crisis. We need to work; we need daycare."

"I'm about a better mum when I work. So, I'm quite happy to send my child to daycare, although it's not my first option. It works for me and it works for my family. We need those options available in our area for mums like me. I shouldn't have to pick between my career and childcare. It just shouldn't happen."

Jaclyn said it is not an option for her not to work with the high rents in Lismore, the housing crisis and paid maternity leave not what it should be.

Isabelle McLennan owns The Learning Cottage Early Learning Centre on Keen Street, Lismore and in Wollongbar and Mitch Hutchinson was an Early Childhood Teacher who has moved into the provision of care in Kyogle and Alstonville.

Isabelle has her own issues with both her centres in providing much-needed childcare for families stating councils are to blame for the delays.

"It's been over two years, four months since floods and a major delay is with council. Unfortunately, they have held it up, basically. I also have another centre in Wollongbar. That centre I applied for two years ago for emergency care. I still only got the DA (development application) approval. l had to go to a full council meeting to get it over a driveway that was five centimetres short. It's absolutely ridiculous. I could have provided care a year ago. I bought the building a year ago."

"Council is not helping us get back to where we should be, and they're not helping us build places for our children. I've got 300 families on both waiting lists; that's 600 children that we can't supply places for."

"Early childhood education and care is absolutely vital in our area. I mean, we have parents ringing us up crying because they can't go back to work."

Mitch Hutchinson added the housing crisis is affecting the quality and retention of early childhood teachers in the Northern Rivers. Legally, Early Learning Centres must have a certain educator to children ratio to operate.

"A big thing for us is, obviously, the spots are needed, but to fill those spots with quality educators is also a big issue in this area. To attract and retain high-quality early childhood teachers in an area where there's zero rentals, a high cost of living is really hard to the award wages that they get paid."

"Now, as providers we can choose to pay them above the award and make their conditions better. However, that comes from our operating budgets or passing that cost on to families at times as well."

Finding casual staff is also problematic due to the amount of sickness that runs through a centre each year.

Apart from helping families so both parents can work to pay the rent or mortgage, Mitch explained why Early Childhood Centres are important to our community.

"You learn more in the first five years of your life than at any other time in your life. So, the brain synapses are building so quickly from that zero to three, zero to five age. That's the foundation for future learning. Investing in children now sees the result in 20 to 25 years time when we have these children who are going to become the scientists, the engineers, the AI experts of the future. That's what we're building now. It's not the kids at high school, it's not the kids in primary school, it's not the university students, it's the children now who we set up on a track of success for their education leading right through to their senior years."

Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Care Angie Bell said the lack of supply is a big problem across the country and one which has been exacerbated in Lismore because of the February 2022 big flood.

"We know that the Labor government is leaving regional Australians behind when it comes to early learning and care, and that's what we're talking about here today. We've seen frustrated families, we've seen upset educators. As you've heard, there is a massive shortage across the nation, about 20,000 vacancies across the country, and it is worse in regional and remote Australia.

"I'd like to thank Kevin Hogan for the work that he's done. But there is much more work to do in the sector. What we are looking at is more flexibility and choice for those regional families who currently do not have access to early learning at all. We have waiting lists that are very, very long across the nation, but here in your area, the waiting lists are extremely long.

"There are very many families who are under great pressure because we are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis caused by this Labor government, where families of mum and dad, or partners, both have to go to work to pay the bills, because we're in a housing crisis, but we're also in an early childhood education and care crisis across our nation."

"I think that it is more acute here, in this area, where you've recently been through the flood. The pain seems to be more acute for those families who simply cannot access a place in early learning. And I really feel for those families here who have been through the flood, and my thoughts and prayers are with them. But we have heard this around the country. There are nine million Australians who live in a childcare desert, and what that means is there are three children waiting for every place available.

"So, the Labor government needs to step up and deliver more for regional families. They spent $4.7 billion on their cheaper childcare, and all that delivered is zero places for regional Australians. Fees have gone up by 7% in less than six months, so families are paying more, which means that they have to work longer hours to pay those gap fees.

"The childcare subsidy has gone up under the coalition. It went from six and a half billion dollars to $11 billion. The Labor government's now thrown $4.7 billion added over the next four years without delivering one place for regional communities like yours here."

When asked how the Opposition government would fix the supply issue causing so many problems for parents across our region and the country, Ms Bell replied, "I'm not in a position, right now, to announce the coalition's policy. But, as we head towards the next election, of course, we'll be announcing our Policy for early learning and care."