he changing shape of the family and of women's role in society, together with an increased economic necessity to participate in paid work has meant that child care has become one of the biggest issues for Australian families and social policy makers today. An increasing proportion of mothers entering the workforce has been associated with a parallel increase in the need for nonparental child care. Child care in the shape of informal and formal care aims to fill this gap. Today, the labour force participation rate of women has reached 57 per cent; twenty years ago it was 44 per cent (ABS, 2005b). On the other hand, women remain the primary caregivers of dependent children. As a result, child care demand and use has grown rapidly over the past two decades. In 2004, the Australian Government supported 561,876 child care places (Productivity Commission, 2005). Child care has been shown to benefit both society and the child. It does this, for example, by providing parents (particularly women) with an opportunity to participate in the work force, increasing workforce attachment and human capital, and decreasing reliance on welfare payments (Anderson, Foster and Frisvold, 1999; Blau, 2000; Hofferth and Collins, 2000). While causal relationships between the availability and affordability of child care and female labour force participation remain the subject of debate in Australia and elsewhere, there is substantial work that suggests a connection between the two (Baxter, 2004). Evidence suggests that difficulties experienced in accessing affordable and good quality child care interfere with the ability of mothers of young children to participate in the workforce (Hofferth and Collins; Kisker and Ross, 1997). Quality child care in the 'early years' is also considered to be beneficial to a child through providing a stimulating, educational and caring environment that aids a child's social, educational and physical development (see, for example, Anderson, Foster and Frisvold, 2004; Burchinal et al, 1996). Studies have shown that quality early childhood programs serve as an early intervention device, aiding in reducing future social problems such as crime, unemployment and teenage pregnancies (Weikart, 1998). Child care has also been considered to be an important instrument to encourage higher reproduction and fertility rates in nations experiencing falling fertility levels (OECD, 2004). Castles (2002) found high use of child care to be strongly correlated with high fertility rates. It is important that high quality child care is accessible to all Australian families. Affordability, together with availability, determines a family's ability to access child care services (Press and Hayes, 2000). Through analysis of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) survey, we attempt
