By Shane Wright
Anthony Albanese will promise that parents will no longer have to work or study to get subsidised childcare as he makes a direct plea to middle-class families to deliver the government a second term.
In a speech to be delivered in the Brisbane electorate of prominent Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather, the prime minister will pledge that a re-elected Labor government would deliver more relief to parents by abolishing the childcare activity test and offering three days’ subsidised care to families earning up to $530,000 a year.
The prime minister will build on the government’s childcare agenda with a promise to end the activity test.Credit: AAP
The activity test, which was toughened by the Coalition in 2018, has been criticised by experts and the Productivity Commission for effectively making it more difficult for parents to access childcare.
Under the test, parents must work, volunteer, study or look for work a certain number of hours every fortnight to qualify for subsidised care.
Couching childcare as the 21st-century equivalent of public education, Albanese will promise the activity test will be replaced with a three-day care guarantee, under which every family earning less than $530,000 will get access to the childcare subsidy for three days a week.
“Our three-day guarantee will ensure every family can afford three days of high-quality early education,” he will say.
“Three days of early education: affordable for every family, funded for every child, building a better education system every step of the way.”
A Productivity Commission report into early childhood education and care, released this year, recommended that the activity test be removed.
It found that it limited care for lower-income families and their children without a substantial boost to the number of people available to enter the workforce.
“The childcare subsidy activity test should be removed. Children’s participation in early childhood education and care should not depend on their parents’ activity,” it found.
Families without access to subsidised hours, often on low incomes, were more likely to accrue “substantial” childcare bills and in some cases, debts to childcare providers.
Separate research for the Thrive By Five organisation found at least 126,000 families, including many from Indigenous backgrounds, missed out on early childhood education because of the activity test.
It found the test stopped 40,000 people, mostly women and more than half of them single parents, from entering the workforce and costing the national economy about $4.5 billion. Casual workers with uncertain hours found it particularly difficult to qualify under the existing test.
Abolishing the test would cost the economy about $1.3 billion a year, it found, but this would be offset by higher income tax receipts and lower government welfare payments.
Albanese, who last month used an election campaign-like rally in Adelaide to promise 100,000 fee-free TAFE positions, will deliver the speech in the electorate of Chandler-Mather, who has had an antagonistic relationship with the prime minister since he took Griffith from Labor in 2022.
Anthony Albanese went to the 2022 election with several promises for childcare assistance.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The prime minister will also use the speech to distinguish between the government’s approach to public assistance programs such as childcare and the Coalition’s.
“I know this for certain: parents do not need to work a certain number of hours a week to want the best possible education for their child. The aspiration to give your children the best chance in life drives every parent – whoever you are and wherever you live,” he will say.
“The Liberals might treat early education like a luxury parents have to prove they need. We know early education is an opportunity every child deserves.”
The government’s focus on childcare has attracted criticism from some parts of the Coalition for not focusing on those people who want to stay at home with their young children.
But Albanese will argue the three-day childcare guarantee was a choice for parents.
“Let me be clear: universal and accessible doesn’t mean compulsory or mandatory. The choice will be up to parents, as always, as it should be,” he will say.
“But we want families to have a real choice. We want to make sure that your decision isn’t dictated by where you live or what you do for a living.”
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.