Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

N () (): The childcare subsidy activity test, often paradoxically, means that children who would benefit most from early childhood education are excluded. Families need to have children settled in early learning centres before they can undertake additional training or study, before they can pick up more shifts at work, and before they pursue work opportunities; not the other way around. Making workforce participation a prerequisite for childcare subsidy makes it even harder for parents with young children who are already disenfranchised from work or study to turn that situation around. We're in the grips of a worker shortage crisis. How many Australians would be ready and rearing to work if they could just get their kids into early childhood education to pursue those job vacancies?

There are compelling arguments to get rid of the childcare subsidy activity test. The organisation Early Childhood Australia says an increase in childcare subsidies 'without a complementary measure to increase the number of hours available to families with low incomes and less than 16 hours of work, study or training, will exacerbate existing inequity and widen attainment gaps for children in families with low incomes and insecure work.' It will also tangibly increase financial disincentives and out-of-pocket costs and barriers to work, study and training for parents of young children. It's at a time when the government is trying to increase productivity as part of the skills shortage across the economy. We don't tie a child's primary school education to how many hours a week their parents work. Why would we do this for early childhood education?

Increasing access to early childhood education is also a valuable investment in women's social and financial equality. Currently, Australia is rated No. 1 in the OECD for women's attainment of education, but it is 38th for women's economic participation. These figures tell a grim story. This story says that our society invests in women's education through primary, secondary and tertiary education and training but it then wastes their talent. It crushes their career dreams and it hobbles their capacity to return on the investment that we've made in the form of workforce participation and it's benefits for society and our economy. Getting women back into the workforce when they would like to return to work is crucial.

There are significant issues with the early childhood education sector but none more urgent than the crisis affecting its workforce. Qualified and experienced early childhood educators are leaving the workforce at an alarming rate. Fifteen per cent of staff have left the workforce since October 2020 because of low wages, tough conditions and insecure employment. The care of preschoolers and the delivery of early childhood education is skilled work. Anyone with children who are or were fortunate enough to attend child care can attest to how hard educators in the sector work and how important the service they deliver is. It's underpinned by extensive research into early development and careful implementation of best practice tailored care for each child in the system, and yet our early childhood educators are amongst the lowest paid workers in this country. An educator with a bachelors degree working with children in those critical first five years of life earns a salary 30 per cent lower than their counterpart working in a primary school.

The minister told the House that Treasury estimates that these measures will increase the hours worked by women with young children by as much as 1.4 million hours a week, potentially adding another 37,000 women to our workforce. But it all falls apart if the children of those 37,000 women can't actually get a spot in a childcare centre because there are not enough centres and there's a shortage of workers. Affordable child care is fantastic. Equitable access to early childhood education is critical. But, unless this crisis in the early childhood sector workforce is addressed, then this could be a wasted investment, with these reforms unable to help families in the way that they should.

The Labor government took its cheaper childcare package to the election, costed at $5.4 billion. It's a worthwhile investment, which the public supported at the election. Since then, the government has revised the cost of this package down to $4.5 billion, with savings coming from transparency measures. Experts in early childhood policy have called for these already budgeted funds to be diverted to increasing the wages of early childhood educators by 10 per cent for the first two years at a cost of $350 million a year as an urgent measure to stabilise the industry before it collapses. This proposal should be looked at by the government.

This legislation is a great start, but for it to succeed it has to be accompanied by other reforms. When it comes to securing our nation's social and economic future, there's no such thing as a golden ticket policy. But, if there were, increasing access to early childhood education would be a contender. Increasing access to early childhood education and care for more children and their parents is among the most effective policy levers a nation can pull if it wants to improve gender equity across society and productivity across our economy. It's also a powerful investment in our children.

I'm pleased to support this legislation, and I will continue to work to improve access to early childhood education for more Australian children and their families.

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