Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Early Childhood Education. How will the Albanese Labor government's plan for more affordable early childhood education help families with the rising cost of living?

Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Macarthur for his question and for his interest and contributions to early childhood development before coming to this place and in this place. I have to say it's rather disappointing that, in the last six months, I haven't had a single question from those opposite about our early childhood education reforms and how they help families struggling with the rising cost of living—reforms that provide cost-of-living relief for 9,200 families in the member for Macarthur's electorate. In fact, our landmark reforms provide more affordable early childhood education for more than 1.2 million families right across Australia in every electorate. That's 1.2 million families that have been struggling with the rising cost of living, 1.2 million families that have had to deal with a 41 per cent rise in the cost of early childhood education and care over the last eight years all while working under the previous government's policies, deliberately designed to keep their wages low. Families, this evening, will be sitting around the family table doing their household budget, factoring in the cost of early childhood education, factoring in all the other costs and then making a decision about whether or not they afford to work an extra day or an extra two days or an extra three days or whether that gets eaten up in early childhood education and care costs and about what that means for their household budget.

The opposition might think that early childhood education is merely outsourcing parenting, but on this side of the House we know that education plays such an important role in a child's brain development as well as for our economy. The Albanese government takes the responsibility of delivering a fairer Australian society seriously, and that includes providing cost-of-living relief, that includes providing cost-of-living relief for those families that have early childhood education fees and are sitting there wondering how they're going to afford Christmas presents, how they're going to afford to pay the rent. They can have confidence that those fees are going to go down and that they can work that extra day if they so wish, that they can go back to study if they so wish and that they can take on extra hours if they so wish. They can contribute to the household budget and bring down their cost of living. They don't just provide relief to the household budget; they also help families boost their household income and enable those primary carers to go back to work if they so wish. Our investment in more affordable early childhood education is exactly the kind of cost-of-living relief with economic dividends that we need right now. (Time expired)