Support all children into early childhood education, economic inclusion group says

All Australian children should be guaranteed access to three days of early childhood education and care, the government’s Interim Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee says.

Former senior Labor minister Jenny Macklin. Picture: AAP

All Australian children should be guaranteed access to three days of early childhood education and care, and current “punitive” bar­riers to parents obtaining a childcare subsidy should be removed, the government’s Interim Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee proposes.

Its 99-page report released late on Tuesday also recommends abolishing the existing Parents­Next program and instead funding a new co-designed voluntary program to help low income parents re-enter the workforce or find more secure jobs.

Among its 37 recommen­dations, the IEIAC report calls on the government to make economic inclusion and poverty reduction specific responsibilities of Treasury, and proposes a “poverty index” to provide a more comprehensive picture of the nature and extent of poverty in Australia.

The committee was formed in December to provide advice on “boosting economic inclusion and tackling disadvantage”. Chaired by former senior Labor minister Jenny Macklin, its terms of reference included “removing barriers to economic inclusion for families with children”.

“The committee identified the ParentsNext scheme and the Activity Test for the Child Care Subsidy as examples where the social security system reduces rather than enhances economic inclusion, especially for women, and causes additional hardship and disadvantage for children,” the report says, in recommending their abolition.

The activity test calculates how much unpaid work, self-­employment or work in family business, education or study, volunteering or looking for work a parent is doing in determining how much subsidised childcare a family receives.

The report described it as “poorly designed and punitive, contributing to children from the poorest households missing out on early childhood education and care”.

“Given children in low income households have been found to benefit the most from early childhood education and care, this restriction is undermining child­hood development of these children,” it says.

The ParentsNext program was originally brought in to aid parents at risk of long-term welfare dependency to find education or employment opportunities, but had “morphed into a compliance-focused program that unfairly targets parents and causes significant hardship”.

Both programs were also the target of the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, which on Tuesday provided interim advice to the government ahead of the budget.

That taskforce, chaired by business leader Sam Mostyn, sent a letter to Finance Minister and Minister for Women Katy Gallagher with six urgent budget priorities, noting its final report would be delivered by the end of the month.

It also called on the government to reinstate the parenting payment for women with children older than eight, increase rent assistance to improve women’s housing security and pay primary carers superannuation while they were on parental leave.