Thousands of families are without childcare as hundreds of services have had to close due to a surge in COVID cases, while many more are running at reduced capacity. Many parents dread another chaotic year that may have them jugging childcare and work at home.

The government rescued the childcare sector several times over the past two years - making services eligible for a portion of their pre-pandemic payments as families pulled their children out. But these measures were only temporary.

The childcare system was already busting at the seams before COVID. I led an international survey in 2021, during the pandemic, in which early childhood educators’ gave ideas on how their government could support their work. In Australia, 51 educators participated.

Here are four preexisting the issues that have increased during the pandemic

When Australia is faced with the sudden and often unexpected impact of natural disaster and other forms of crisis, citizens typically "look for the heroes" – the brave first responders and Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel who put their minds and bodies on the line to ensure the safety and well being of others.

For three million Australians, the announcement of a reduction in indexation on their HECS and HELP student loan debt is welcome. The change means an estimated $3 billion will be wiped from student’s debt from July, because the amount is backdated to include the indexation added in 2023.

Also, proposed changes to the rate of indexation (similar to an interest rate) will not be based on inflation, but on more stable rates. The government is proposing it should be indexed using the Consumer Price Index or Wage Price Index, depending on which is lower on any given year.

Although it can be exciting to move to a new house and community, relocations are a major source of stress for many families. The positive consequence of frequent relocations is that children get to know different parts of the country and sometimes different cultures if they are posted overseas. This can help to boost their confidence to relocate for study, work and relationships when they are adults. Also, if well supported, children can develop coping strategies to help deal with change.

Despite the positives, there are many challenges for children. They feel the stress within the family, and younger children might struggle to understand what is happening during the different stages of the move. For example, the service parent might leave early to start their new role, and the other parent and children are left to pack up their house and say goodbye. When they arrive at the new location, they might be living out of a suitcase for a few weeks before they can access their belongings.

In the aftermath of the horrors of the attacks in Bondi and Wakeley, many community members have been involved in or witnessed traumatic events. These can impact mental health and family life, what we call events which cause moral injury.

Our team has co-created resources to support children who grow up in families where a parent has a moral injury. As Anzac Day approaches, it is also relevant to consider defence, veteran and first responder (service) families.

Background: A recent study conducted in Australia has identified challenges to the rural resettlement of refugee families. These include securing employment, discrimination, and social isolation. These challenges can affect resettlement outcomes including health and wellbeing, though relatively little research has examined these links. Armidale, a small rural inland city in NSW, is home to a large Ezidi population. Before pre-settlement the children lacked appropriate play environments as they had to play underground quietly to survive ISIS persecution. Therefore, support and investment in early intervention strategies for Ezidi children to improve their wellbeing is necessary.

Almost half a million Australians were victims of Robodebt under the previous Government. This is when 'mateship' and 'a fair go' went on a holiday for a few years. At the same time, others, like myself, were victims of Centrelink's impersonal, incorrect and sometimes unfair automated debt recovery systems.

As victims, we have been disturbed and triggered by the contents of the damning report from the Royal Commission.

The Government led the public to believe that the disadvantaged and marginalised not only had their hand in the honey pot, but they were being greedy.

Who were these people who were apparently cheating? Mostly, it was those on insecure and fluctuating incomes. This included many women, single mums and students.

Integral to the global nature play movement, nature play programs have flourished over the last decade, both in Australia and internationally. Internationally, there are two prominent schools of thought in this movement, Danish Nature Kindergartens, and British Forest Schools. The underpinning philosophy of Danish Nature Kindergarten programs has been translated worldwide, raising questions about implementation, and possible decontextualisation, post-translation. Specifically, there are claims that the British translation known as Forest School, has become a marketable commodity and a ‘McDonaldised’ set of practices that educators have been trained in worldwide, including Australia. In this review article we examine Australian outdoor, nature play programs in early childhood education (ECE) settings to identify the relevance of these claims to Australian ECE contexts. These contexts appear to be diverging from the two international schools of thought, forging a uniquely, Australian ‘Nature Play’ pathway contextualised to social, cultural, political and educational landscapes. However, we acknowledge the limited Australian nature play program research to date has only been conducted in government regulated ECE settings. In such settings, legislation mandates that early childhood (EC) qualified educators implement programs underpinned by philosophy and pedagogy. Although not infallible, this likely minimises the potential for commodification. Whereas among private-for-profit, outdoor, nature play programs without the same legislated requirements, we argue the potential for commodification may be greater. We identify the need for research to examine the philosophical and pedagogical basis of such private-for-profit programs. As there is no Australian research in these settings, we recommend a research agenda to explore this gap.