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Childcare centres that hike fees to cover subsidy increases have been warned they will be in the consumer watchdog's sights.

Federal childcare rebates will increase from July 1 with more than one million families hoping to benefit.

While it should mean a reduction in out-of-pocket fees, concerns have been raised that the savings will be swallowed by childcare centres increasing fees to cover rising costs.

Education Minister Jason Clare said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was monitoring for unreasonable hikes and whether centres play by the rules.

"If they don't, then they stand ready to act and give us the recommendations we need to make sure parents get value for money," he said in Melbourne.

The minister said the government was looking to see whether Medicare-styled universal child care was a future possibility.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the childcare changes would make a difference to family budgets.

"People have been anticipating this change since we were elected in May of last year," he said.

"You're already seeing, as a result of that, more early learning centres being opened, more people training and getting the skills they need."

Childcare company Goodstart chief executive Ros Baxter said the cost of its services had risen in line with inflation but further increases would not be made following the subsidy rise.

"After the (subsidy) increases 92 per cent of our families will be better off, most of them really significantly better off. These are really substantial investments the federal government's making in cheaper child care," Dr Baxter told ABC Radio.

It comes with the consumer watchdog to hand an interim report on its inquiry into childcare services to Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Friday.

The final report will be handed down in December, following talks with industry stakeholders after the childcare subsidy changes come into effect.

Opposition early childhood spokeswoman Angie Bell said inflation was causing fee rises of up to seven per cent for child care, adding pressure on families during a cost of living crisis.

"We warned this government time and time again this would happen and they waved us off, saying fees wouldn't rise and families would get much needed relief," she said.

"It's clear they have no idea what they're doing."

Early childhood group Thrive By Five director Jay Weatherill said any price rises beyond CPI, or that do not contribute to better quality, are unacceptable.

"Families will be better off financially regardless of increases but providers who use this nation-building reform to build more profit off the backs of educators and families shouldn't be given a free pass to price gouge," he said.

© AAP 2023

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Thousands of Australians living in regional centres will be able to order meals to their homes after Uber revealed plans to expand food-delivery services into more remote parts of the country.

The tech giant, which operates the largest food-delivery platform in Australia, launched its service in seven regional towns this week, in addition to six added earlier this month.

The move comes after an e-commerce survey found online purchases in regional towns jumped during the past year and as another found more than seven million Australians regularly use meal-delivery services.

Regional towns to get access to Uber Eats for the first time include Gladstone in Queensland, Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Burnie in Tasmania, Warragul in Victoria and a host of NSW locations inducing Bowral, Lismore, Tamworth and Coffs Harbour.

Uber Eats marketplace director Ed Kitchen said the towns were chosen for having a large population within a 30-minute delivery range of restaurants.

"We've seen cities where there is an under-served population and a growing restaurant base that are looking for the ability to drive e-commerce," he said.

"We don't think that metropolitan Australia should have a monopoly on convenience."

Food from local restaurants and national chains would be offered on the platform first, Mr Kitchen said, before Uber added grocery deliveries from Coles, IGA and BP.

"We have plans to launch a number of new markets later this year," he said.

"For us this is not job done."

The food-delivery launches come after Australia Post's Inside Australian Online Shopping Report found online purchases rose by 6.5 per cent in rural towns last year and 5.7 per cent in remote communities.

Market research firm Roy Morgan also found seven million Australians over the age of 14 use meal-delivery services in a three-month period, up from 3.6 million people in 2020.

But Australians living in capital cities were more likely to order meals to their homes, the company found, with 38 per cent using food-delivery services compared to 24 per cent in country areas.

© AAP 2023

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A 4.6-magnitude earthquake has rattled residents in regional Victoria, with thousands of people feeling the early morning tremor.

Geoscience Australia said the earthquake struck at 1.32am on Friday near Rawson, a small town around 150km east of Melbourne.

More than 9000 people had reported feeling the earthquake by 8.30am, including many residents in the Victorian capital's eastern suburbs.

A Victorian SES spokeswoman told AAP on Friday morning there were no reported injuries or property damage.

The earthquake follows a series of recent tremors across the region over the past month, including a 4.0-magnitude earthquake in late May.

Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Jonathan Bathgate said the earthquake was the latest in a series of aftershocks from the 2021 magnitude-5.9 quake that struck the town of Mansfield.

"This is a part of that aftershock sequence and it is possible that there will be others to follow," he told Seven's Sunrise program.

Elodie Borleis from the Seismology Research Centre said the increase in tremors across the state was normal.

"There's been no reported damage so far, people have just reported feeling it and hearing it," she told ABC TV.

"This is very normal; yes, we've had an increase in the last couple of years of people actually feeling them, but the actual background seismicity hasn't changed at all."

A 2.4-magnitude earthquake was reported in the Mornington Peninsula on June 3 and days prior, residents in Sunbury reported a 3.8-magnitude earthquake on May 29.

Residents were rattled by a 4.0-magnitude earthquake across Melbourne on May 28 and a 2.3-magnitude earthquake with a depth of about 4km was felt in Ferntree Gully on May 16.

© AAP 2023

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House prices have doubled in less than 10 years in Sydney and Hobart but it's taken a lot longer to reach the milestone elsewhere in Australia.

It's often said seven to 10 years is needed for property values to double but new PropTrack analysis shows it took the median house price 15.4 years through to May 2023.

It required even longer for units, around 17.8 years.

It's taken just 6.8 years for house prices to increase twofold in Tasmania's capital city and 7.8 years for units.

In Sydney, it was 9.6 years and 17.3 years.

House values in some regional areas grew to twice their previous worth in less than 10 years, including regional Tasmania, Victoria and NSW.

PropTrack director economic research Cameron Kusher said the findings showed few markets were observing doubling values even after the big upswing at the beginning of the pandemic.

"This highlights that as the cost of housing has increased, the percentage gains in prices have reduced," he said.

Mr Kusher said sluggish wage growth was keeping a lid on prices, especially when compared to earlier decades when women entered the workforce in large numbers and made dual incomes more common.

He also said macroprudential policies, such as serviceability buffers, have also tightened up access to finance in recent years and kept price growth contained.

"Rising interest rates and much higher prices, along with other economic and demographic factors, will weigh on the prospects of prices doubling in the future," he added.

© AAP 2023