Albanese child care promise to one-up PM

Anthony Albanese plans to hijack the votes of families “doing it tough” by promising cheaper childcare to households earning less than $530,000 a year.

Anthony Albanese has promised cheaper child care in his first pitch of the election campaign, despite the Coalition saying his policy is too focused on richer families.

Labor plans to hijack the votes of families who missed out on the higher subsidies handed out by the Coalition last month.

The Opposition Leader on Sunday pledged to increase childcare subsidies for the first child in care, while matching the Coalition’s higher subsidies for siblings.

Opposition housing spokesman Jason Clare claimed earlier in the day that child care costs were on the rise under Scott Morrison’s leadership.

“The cost of child care is 800 bucks more this year than it was last year. The cost of rent is $2000 more this year than it was last year. So if Scott Morrison thinks that everything’s hunky dory and that Australians have never been better off then he is more out of touch than I really think he ever was,” Mr Clare said.

Labor said it would try to simplify the convoluted childcare system by increasing subsidies for all families earning up to $530,000 a year in household income. It will also extend subsidies for second and additional children in care, and to outside school hours care.

Its plan would cost $5.4bn to assist 1.26 million families.

Nearly 250,000 families benefited from the Morrison government’s increase to subsidies – announced in last year’s budget and introduced in March this year.

Jason Clare. Picture: Liana Boss

Jane Hume. Picture: Getty Images

Working families are saving up to $162 a week in child care costs, after the government boosted the top child care subsidy from 85 to 95 per cent of fees for second and subsequent children in daycare, at a cost to taxpayers of $1.7bn a year.

In December last year the Coalition also removed its cap on subsidies, which had limited rebates to $10,655 per child per year.

Last month, Women’s Economic Security Minister Jane Hume said the Coalition’s policy struck a better balance for lower to middle-income families.

“Labor’s policy, on the other hand, would see child care available for millionaires. In fact, we have families earning more than half a million dollars who would only pay around $2600 a year in child care, while the taxpayer subsidises around $24,000 a year to those families that, let’s face it, can afford child care themselves,” she said in Melbourne. “It’s taxpayers, those low and middle-income earners that need the subsidies that will end up subsidising millionaires’ families. And there’s nothing fair about that. There’s nothing equitable about that.”

The Greens are campaigning for free child care for everyone.

KindiCare, an online child care comparison tool, estimates that an average dual-income family with one baby in daycare full-time would spend $303 in out-of-pocket costs under the Coalition’s existing subsidy system, compared to $180 a week under Labor’s policy.

Labor has also promised price regulation through the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to keep a lid on rising child care fees, as well as a Productivity Commission review to design a universal 90 per cent subsidy for all families.

Child care costs soared by 6.5 per cent last year – double the rate of inflation – as rising rents and staff shortages drove up costs.