the mini mode editorial team
a small team of AU parenting writers and researchers. we translate Services Australia, state regulators and paediatric bodies into answers a tired parent can use. this page explains who writes what, where we get our numbers, and how we handle mistakes.
the team
our writers use pen names. it's a personal-privacy decision — our team write about their own kids, and the site intentionally keeps the focus on the content rather than on personalities. none of the pen names represent fabricated qualifications, employers, or identities. each editor works in the area listed below.
megan walsh
early-education editor
area: school calendars, curriculum, long-weekend planning. anything with a term-date or school-year cadence.
ten years reading state education department publications across NSW, VIC, QLD and WA. quietly obsessive about pupil-free days because she's been caught out by one too many times.
milly chen
childcare & regulatory editor
area: state-by-state parenting law — car seats, pool fencing, WWCC, product recalls, childcare exclusion periods, the under-16 social media ban.
reads legislation on weekends. gets cranky when eight state regulators publish the same rule eight different ways. writes comparison tables so parents only read it once.
catherine alderstein
family payments & immunisation editor
area: services australia rates, the national immunisation program schedule, CCS rules, activity test — the benefits side of raising kids in AU.
follows the federal budget forum like other people follow sport. the first person in the team to notice when Services Australia changes a threshold.
emma whitfield
family life editor
area: the money and logistics of the first five years — baby names, cost of raising a child, maternal & child health nurse services, free kinder.
reads ABS and Services Australia releases and translates them into answers parents actually want. prefers a good table over a good paragraph.
william samuels
safety & early-years editor
area: the things you never want to need but have to know — infant CPR, choking first aid, baby-proofing, tongue tie, fussy eating, school starting age.
cross-checks first-aid guidance against the Australian Resuscitation Council and the Royal Children's Hospital before anything lands on the site. no 'life hacks' in first aid copy.
priya chatterjee
baby & toddler development editor
area: sleep, milestones, childhood illnesses — the common-but-exhausting questions parents ask in the first three years.
prefers the boring-but-true answer. always cites Raising Children Network, RCH Melbourne and healthdirect. gently pushes back on miracle-cure claims.
jessie willcox
newborn care contributor
area: the first weeks at home — bath routines, baby names trends, the surprisingly political 'what are you calling him' questions.
writes with a new-parent-in-the-trenches tone. will not pretend bath time is zen.
james kellett
workplace entitlements contributor
area: paid parental leave, dad & partner pay, the bits of fair work that overlap with being a new parent.
reads fair work ombudsman decisions for fun. worth the effort when PPL changes.
writes
how we work
govt source on every rate
if we quote a dollar figure, threshold, or date, we link the government page we took it from. if the source updates, we update. no stale numbers.
plain english, not bureaucrat
we translate the legislation into the answer you came for. the bureaucrat version is one click away if you want it.
calculators show their working
every calculator on the site ships with a plain-english explanation of the formula and the source rates, so you can check us.
AU first
we write for Australian parents in Australian English. state-by-state comparisons where the rules differ, which is more often than you'd think.
we are not your lawyer, doctor or accountant
mini mode is a free resource that summarises public information. it is not professional advice. we say this out loud on every tool.
we use AI as a tool, not a byline
we use AI for first drafts of the calculator copy and to pattern-check long data tables — but a human editor reviews every page against primary sources before it ships, and corrections come back to a human. the bylines on mini mode are pen names used by the editorial team. none of them are fabricated experts, qualifications or identities.
we publish our mistakes
when we get something wrong, we fix it and say what changed. corrections are logged below, dated, and linked from the affected page.
where our numbers come from
we favour primary sources over aggregators. every rate, threshold or date on a calculator page should be traceable to one of these.
CCS, FTB, PPL, Parenting Payment, Newborn Supplement, Dad & Partner Pay rates and eligibility.
National Immunisation Program schedule, healthdirect.
first-principle paediatric guidance. we cross-check first aid, illness and dosage content against RCH.
medicines safety, paracetamol and ibuprofen guidance.
mandatory product standards and kids product recalls.
National Quality Standard ratings used in our childcare directory + MiniMode Score.
term dates, pupil-free days, enrolment cutoffs — one per state × 8.
car seat and booster requirements — they differ by state in ways people don't expect.
government-funded AU parenting resource — we cite, we don't copy.
population-level parenting data — costs of raising kids, childcare usage, births.
corrections log
when we get something wrong, we note it here with a date. the affected page is always updated at the same time.
removed ~21,000 low-information childcare pages from the sitemap. suburbs with fewer than 5 centres and individual centre detail pages are now no-indexed — they stayed live but were drowning the useful content. readers see more useful pages in search as a result.
updated CCS family income threshold copy to the current $186,958 withdrawal point. earlier drafts had an older threshold in the explainer; the calculation itself used the correct value.
disclosures
commercial relationships: mini mode runs display advertising on some pages. advertisers do not influence editorial decisions and do not see content before it is published. we do not currently run affiliate links on product reviews. if this changes, we will say so prominently on the affected page.
childcare directory: our childcare centre listings are sourced from public ACECQA data. we do not accept payment for listing, ranking, or the MiniMode Score.
no medical or financial advice: the site summarises public information. for personal situations, check with Services Australia, your GP, or a qualified professional.
contact the editors
spotted a mistake, a stale rate, or a broken link? tell us. we read every note.
hello@minimode.com.au