Election 2025: Coalition plans to reinstate childcare activity test

Peter Dutton would reinstate the activity test for parents wishing to access childcare if he wins the election, reversing Labor’s decision to give three days of care a week.

Peter Dutton would reinstate the activity test for parents wishing to access childcare if he wins the election.

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Peter Dutton would reinstate the activity test for parents wishing to access childcare if he wins the election, reversing Labor’s decision to give parents the ability to access taxpayer-funded subsidies for three days of care a week regardless of whether they are seeking employment, working or studying.

The Australian can reveal an elected Coalition government would not scrap the $1bn Building Early Education Fund announced by Anthony Albanese last year to set up more than 160 new childcare centres, instead committing to keep the fund in place to “be invested into early childhood education around Australia”.

As part of its childcare policy platform, announced a week before the election, the Coalition will set up a $100m grant program to be offered to providers setting up “flexible and innovative alternatives” to the long daycare model. This could include the ­delivery of mobile daycare, ­employer-supported models of care or bush kindy, delivered outdoors and in nature.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said the fund was critical because long daycare models didn’t work for regional communities, which had far fewer children and families spread across vast geographies.

“We will provide a significant investment of $100m to deliver solutions for communities who have been forgotten by Anthony Albanese and the Labor government,” he said. “Labor’s policies have completely neglected this ­reality. The guarantee of childcare three days a week means absolutely nothing if you live in a community where you can’t even get one day a week.”

Opposition early childhood education spokeswoman Angie Bell. Picture Glenn Hampson

Despite seeking to differentiate its childcare offering from Labor, the Coalition would not say whether it would change the sector’s funding model or subsidy scheme, which is available to households earning up to $530,000 under $9bn reforms ­enacted by the ALP in 2023.

Opposition early childhood education spokeswoman Angie Bell said Labor had “failed to meaningfully address issues around quality, affordability or access” over the past three years.

“Families and children living in regional Australia deserve better,” she said. “We must create greater flexibility in early childhood education and care models so that children can have the best start in life and primary carers can re-enter the workforce should they choose to.”

Ms Bell and other Coalition frontbenchers were critical of Labor’s decision to scrap the activity test, which needs to be completed by parents seeking to access any level of care, for three days a week.

The opposition argued that doing so threatened taxpayer dollars being spent responsibly, and pointed out that parents needed to complete only four hours a week of work, study or job hunting to access subsidised care.

Labor said scrapping the activity test for three days would benefit about 66,000 families and cost just $427m over five years.

The Nationals have been especially exercised over the ­Coalition’s childcare policies, given the lack of affordable ser­vices available to constituents in their regional seats.

The Prime Minister has made clear the ALP intends to achieve a universal system of childcare in the long term and last week singled out the ambition as central to the legacy he wanted to leave as the nation’s leader.