On the Mid North Coast, two very different issues are telling the same story.
One is confronting and often hidden: modern slavery. The other is familiar to thousands of families: the shortage of accessible childcare.
At first glance, they may seem unrelated. But Regional Development Australia Mid North Coast’s recent advocacy shows they are both part of a larger regional reality – communities cannot grow, attract workers or sustain local economies unless the systems beneath them are strong, fair and responsive.
The exploitation that can hide in plain sight
Modern slavery is not a distant problem. RDA Mid North Coast has been clear that it is happening in rural and regional NSW, including on the Mid North Coast, where temporary migrant workers are helping fill critical labour gaps in sectors such as aged care and agriculture. The NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner’s 2024 Be Our Guests report identified the Mid North Coast, including Nambucca Valley and Coffs Harbour, as areas of concern for disengaged PALM workers, with exploitation risks including forced labour, deceptive recruitment and possible labour trafficking.
“ We are deeply reliant on migrant communities to undertake work in our community in many industries,” says RDA Mid North Coast CEO Madeleine Lawler. “They are vulnerable people, and there is a real disparity in power and circumstances. I think even just knowing what you’re entitled to or the way that the system should work… it’s very difficult to get across that information if you are not speaking the same language.”
This is not only a worker protection issue. It is a regional development issue.
When migrant workers arrive in a region to earn money, support their families and contribute to local industry, but instead face isolation, debt, unsafe accommodation or exploitation, the costs ripple through the whole community. Local service providers, main street businesses, councils, health workers, police and community organisations are often left responding to crises they were never properly resourced to manage. RDA Mid North Coast’s message is simple but powerful: regional growth must be built on fairness, safety and dignity, not on the vulnerability of the people who help sustain it.
The care gap holding families and businesses back
The same systems lens applies to childcare.
In 2023, RDA Mid North Coast found that only 65 per cent of childcare demand across the region was being met, with the shortage estimated to cost local families $384 million in lost wages each year. The issue is not simply a matter of parental convenience. It affects workforce participation, business productivity, essential worker attraction and the ability of regional towns to retain families.
The numbers are stark. In 2023, 36 childcare providers across the Mid North Coast reported 3,694 families on waitlists*, while one in four childcare providers were operating under approved capacity because of staff shortages. More than 85 per cent of surveyed parents said they were working fewer hours than they wanted to because they could not access childcare.
Behind those figures are nurses unable to return to shifts, teachers juggling rosters, small businesses missing staff and parents forced to choose between income and care.
RDA Mid North Coast is now surveying families and early childhood education and care providers again to understand whether recent reforms have shifted the dial on the ground. That evidence is vital because regional policy must be built from regional experience, not metropolitan assumptions.
“The Nambucca Valley, for instance, where only one in six children has a place, has a childcare desert,” says Lawler. “And Kempsey’s not far behind. With that enabling infrastructure, that social infrastructure, absent, it makes it very difficult for employers and for people who really desperately need to be in the labour market with the cost of living as it is at the moment.”
A stronger region starts with stronger systems
Together, these two focus areas show the breadth of RDA Mid North Coast’s work. Modern slavery demands vigilance, coordination and a willingness to look directly at exploitation that may be hidden in plain sight. Childcare demands investment, workforce planning and practical solutions that recognise the economic role of care.
Both require governments, industry and communities to listen to local intelligence.
And both reinforce a central truth: regional development is not only about roads, housing, jobs or investment. It is also about the human infrastructure that allows a place to function – safe workers, supported families, trusted local services and communities with the capacity to respond before pressure becomes crisis.
RDA Mid North Coast’s recent work is a reminder that strong regions are not built by growth alone. They are built by systems that protect people, unlock participation and give communities the tools to shape their own future.
*RDA Mid North Coast notes that some families may have appeared on more than one provider’s list.