Councils across the country are being forced to close childcare centres due to their ineligibility for government support payments.

NSW Shadow Minister for Local Government Greg Warren has joined the call to open up council access to the JobKeeper allowance or a similar alternative.

He tells Ray Hadley the centres are “an essential service for many parents”, with over 300,000 families in council-run facilities in NSW.

“This just needs to be cleaned up. It needs to be addressed immediately.”

“You can’t have all these childcare centres shutting down… you’ve got all those people basically not able to work, and they’ve got to look after their kids!” Ray added.

Ray argues the problem is disproportionately affecting families in rural and regional communities, where childcare services are few and far between.

“We can look after Rob from Longreach who phoned me yesterday, who has one childcare centre in the town run by the council.

“We need to make sure those parents are not disadvantaged.”

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