Just been thrown into the wayback machine: what's the go with the au pairs?

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You'd have to ask Peter Dutton. You'd remember he was the minister in charge when two au pairs were about to be deported and he intervened.

What's an au pair? Usually a young woman who helps with the kids. Around the edges she may also cook and clean. A bit more on this later.

Two newish lobby groups, Childcare Choice and For Parents, are campaigning for the childcare subsidy to include care outside childcare centres. It would involve funding child care options such as payment to au pairs, nannies, grandparents etc.

Is there a worse idea than that? Sadly Angus Taylor says he plans to adopt this ludicrous plan as policy.

I called his office to see if there was any actual development of how it would work. Yeah, nah. A spokesperson said: "The leader has only spoken broadly about expanding childcare instead of forcing families into the same universal system."

So when Taylor said he planned to move ahead with it, it was more of a vibe. No formal policy has been developed and realised at this stage.

We have spent years and years in this country working to make sure our children are cared for in centres with standards. We already know what happens when childcare centre proprietors fail to uphold those standards. Child sexual assault. Other kinds of physical endangerment. God knows what will happen to the kid who was repeatedly slapped while the slapper laughed.

But at least there are several sets of eyes on our prized babies, not some person magicked up from a WhatsApp group who knows nothing about kids.

Now, in Childcare Choice and For Parents, we have Duttonistas and fellow travellers, former and present, lobbying to make sure they can get money for having nannies and au pairs. Who is working to ensure those nannies and au pairs are doing the right thing by the kids in their care?

A very good question so I asked Marg Rogers, an associate professor in early........

© Canberra Times