Kate Ellis: Why we need to pour cash into childcare

Childcare impacts a large segment of our communities and Labor’s $4 billion policy will put money back into the pockets of 887,000 families, says Kate Ellis.

THERE’S a common saying that it takes a village to raise a child.

It seems a large section of our population believe this is hogwash, though. Instead, every time an investment in early childhood policies is announced, we hear complaints of “If people want children then they should raise them themselves”; or “Why should I have to pay for other people’s decision to have children?”

Normally, to this I roll my eyes and silently ponder: Why it is that people who are young don’t baulk at funding aged care; that the healthy are quite relaxed about funding our hospitals; that it’s generally accepted that we should have well-funded disability services, regardless of who relies on them and that you don’t have to have been in the armed services to support funding veterans services? Children though? Well, that is just their parents’ problem!

Given these sentiments are clearly not going away and that Bill Shorten has recently announced groundbreaking, bold, forward-looking early childhood policies, it might be worth quickly addressing these views.

Labor has announced if elected it will invest an additional $4 billion to ensure every Australian family earning up to $174,000 will get cheaper childcare. It’s a policy that will put money back into the pockets of 887,000 families.

Labor will fully fund 20 per cent pay increases for our amazingly hard working but poorly paid professional early childhood educators.

And, particularly near and dear to my heart, Labor has announced a National Preschool and Kindy Program that will see every Australian child access two years of subsidised access kindy from the age of three.

These policies are big and obviously have a substantial price tag attached but they will change the lives of hundreds of thousands of Australian families and also benefit more than just the parents and children affected.

The evidence is undisputed that one of the smartest investments a country can make is in early childhood. There is a reason countries like China, France, Ireland and the UK have all moved before us to fund preschool for three-year-olds. It’s proven to boost academic results and in turn economic growth. All of us benefit from a strong economy.

Beyond this, anyone who cares about fairness in society and wants to ensure that children have greater opportunity than their parents or grandparents before them, should support these reforms. The cheapest and most effective way to break cycles of disadvantage is in early childhood.

The Liberals have nothing to say on these issues, with the minister failing to even turn up to the debate. Labor has made the big calls.

Children are part of our society. We should stand up to this silly notion that they only become so once they turn 18 and, before that, they are solely the responsibility of their parents.

kate ellis is the retiring labour

member for adelaide