Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the contribution that the member for Warringah just made, echoing that belief that there is a fundamental good for society in having every young child given the opportunity to have quality early education. I think back to what it was like to be a mum with little kids. It was a long time ago. It's more than 30 years ago. It was during the recession we had to have. It was a tough time economically, and the cost of child care even back then was something that weighed on you. But, as we know, it's gotten tougher. I see my children's generations really struggling to work full time—or part time, if they can afford it—and balance the budget with their childcare costs. We need to say to those young people now: We realise that it's tough. These have been difficult economic times.

On top of that, those young people are probably at the hardest stage of their lives, with the biggest calls on their time, their funds and their energy. That's what this is tackling. It's about recognising the challenges—challenges that got harder because of the previous government. When the Liberals were in government they created a bigger problem here, and that's where I want to start, in talking about the Early Childhood Education and Care (Three Day Guarantee) Bill 2025.

When the former Liberal government introduced the activity test in July 2018, they promised that it was about enabling and encouraging greater workforce participation and simplifying childcare payments. Instead, what it actually did was to create new barriers to workforce participation for parents. It made the childcare system more complicated for their families. It made it harder for families to access early childhood education, especially for those with children who are likely to benefit from it the most. That's the appalling consequence of what happened. And it had multiple other consequences. We've seen a massive increase in grandparents looking after grandchildren to try to help ease the costs because parents aren't able to access the number of subsidised hours of care that would make it accessible.

That 2018 childcare package halved the number of subsidised hours of care that low-income families could access. It went from 48 hours a fortnight to 24 hours, essentially one day a week. Data from the Department of Education shows that the number of children from low-income families who accessed care went from 32,000 in 2018 to around 6½ thousand in 2019. That suggests that without that extra help many low-income families simply dropped out of early education. There's a whole generation of toddlers who missed out because of the Liberal Party's decision. That is unacceptable.

The Australian Institute of Family Studies reviewed the Liberals' childcare reforms back in 2021 and gave them the advice that the small increase in parents' employment since 2018 was consistent with ongoing trends around the world in workforce participation and couldn't be linked to their reforms. The Liberals probably wished they hadn't been given that advice. They certainly didn't take note of that advice, and they maintained their policy settings.

The Australian Institute of Family Studies found that detailed activity testing was making the system more difficult to navigate—and it is not a simple system; it never was. Even back in my day it was complicated and confusing. When you're a young mum with young kids, the system is even more challenging to try and get your head around when there's so much else going on. When you're trying to get out the door in the morning with the kids while you're on your way to work, that's really the focus of the way you start each day.

The Institute of Family Studies also found that children in low-income families who didn't meet the activity test were not getting enough access to early childhood education. These were the children who, as we all know, often need it the most—not always, but often. When you look at the consequences of that down the line, you see that when kids get to primary school—in New South Wales in their first year they do kindergarten—if they haven't had that early learning there are big differences within that class. This means big challenges for teachers, who of course do an extraordinary job in our schools to cater for it. It's actually a benefit to every parent of a child in those first years of school to have all the other kids having had a fantastic quality early childhood education background.

All of this is backed by research. This is not just something where we say, 'I've been a mum and I know.' The analysis by the Institute of Family Studies has been backed in multiple ways, and I want to quote Dr Angela Jackson and Impact Economics, which found:

The current activity test—

and this is talking about the Liberals' activity test—

for the Child Care Subsidy limits access to subsidised child care and is contributing to … children from the poorest households missing out on critical early childhood education and care. As a result, these children are more likely to start school behind their peers, with many never catching up.

And these are choices that the Liberals made, choices that have consequences for kids who are now in school. They have consequences for our system now and in years to come. That's why this reform is so important.

The three-day guarantee is about making sure that every family and every child can access subsidised early learning. We want to make sure every single child gets the best possible start in life. They have a right to go to early education, to help make sure they don't start school behind other kids. This Labor government is going to make sure that is possible.

This bill replaces the activity test, and the three-day guarantee will essentially increase entitlements for more than 100,000 families, with more than 66,000 families expected to be better off in the first full financial year of the implementation of this policy and no families worse off. This reform is part of our next steps to continue building a universal early education and care system where we see expanding access to quality care across the country. It obviously builds on cheaper child care, which cuts the cost of early education and care for around a million families. It also builds on our efforts to get a 15 per cent pay rise for early educators. It's part of a package that establishes a $1 billion Building Early Education Fund to build and expand childcare centres in areas of need, including the outer suburbs and regions.

That brings a big smile to my face because, as someone who represents an outer suburb and region—the Hawkesbury, the Plains and the Blue Mountains—we really need help getting access to childcare places. I know mums who can't work or who can only work a small amount of time but not the amount they'd like. That's because we are one of those deserts where the actions of the previous government did nothing to help increase access to early education. It's the height of hypocrisy for those opposite to now suddenly discover that there are problems and a bit tricky to get childcare places if you're a new mum. This has been going on for years, and, under their watch, they did absolutely nothing. They chose to ignore it completely.

The Building Early Education Fund is going to include $500 million in targeted capital grant rounds focused on quality, not-for-profit early childhood education and care providers and state and local governments to establish new services and increase the capacity of existing services. Grants will be targeted—as Labor always does—to priority and underserved markets, including regional locations and outer suburbs. I certainly know I am advocating hard for my community on these matters.

That's how this piece of legislation fits into a bigger picture. It's not a one-off—let's just do this and give it a tick, and that'll fix everything. We recognise the breadth of work there is to do. I acknowledge in the chamber the Minister for Education, who, along with his assistant minister, works so hard to ensure that we have an education system that will have universal access and treats people across Australia with dignity and respect and recognises that it's not just those who live in posh parts of cities who deserve the best; it's everybody.

The key to this legislation is that all families will be guaranteed three days, 72 hours, of childcare subsidy each fortnight. Families caring for First Nations children will be guaranteed 100 hours each fortnight. Families who work, study or train will continue to be eligible for 100 hours of subsidised care each fortnight. This is a fundamental difference to the existing status quo. To those who argue that this is something we can't afford to do: this is something we can't afford not to do. The benefits of educating children early in a quality way flow through their entire lives. The benefits flow through to the rest of society. These are things that people will look back on and say, 'That was transformational.' This legislation will also help with cost-of-living pressures. Our whole focus has been on trying to alleviate cost-of-living pressures wherever we can.

The cheaper childcare reforms cut the cost of child care by about 17 per cent for the typical family—that's more than a million families receiving about 17 per cent relief. Today, the average out-of-pocket costs for early education and care are not only lower than before cheaper child care came in but lower than they were when the former Liberal government introduced the childcare subsidy in 2018. This is significant for families. Our three-day guarantee will deliver additional cost-of-living relief for more than 66,000 families after the changes commence in January 2026. As an example, families earning from $50,000 to $100,000 will be better off under the three-day guarantee to the tune of about, on average, $1,460 a year, so I'm very pleased to be here to talk about these changes. The regime that we are replacing has been described by Jay Weatherill from the Minderoo Foundation as 'punitive and unfair'. We are making this fairer. We're not punishing families and particularly not punishing children for the circumstances that they are in.

I want to leave you with some of the words of those who know this sector way better than me. I come to it as a parent, and hopefully grandparent, not only thinking about how my children might interact with this system but watching my many friends' children coming to grips with how they navigate work, child care and early education. Dr Ros Baxter, the CEO of Goodstart, who knows a thing or two about child care, says:

This will change lives. It will boost our nation's productivity, ensuring Australia's children don't fall behind. And it will support more parents into work, study and training.

That's the change we make. Georgie Dent, the CEO of The Parenthood, someone who speaks to many families and particularly to women, describes the activity test as 'a barrier that disproportionately locks out children who stand to benefit the most from participating in quality early childhood education and care'. She says:

The evidence shows the main people who will benefit from scrapping the Activity Test are single mothers and their children, First Nations families and casual and shift workers.

So I'm very proud that this policy change to bring affordable, accessible and quality child care within the reach of more people is going through this parliament, and I would really urge those opposite to support it. There's nothing better that we can do than invest in our young people. We all know that investing in things that prevent problems down the track is such a better use of taxpayer dollars than dealing with issues later down the track. This is exactly what this bill will do. It will ease things for families, and I commend it to the House.

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