Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. There are two positive economic steps that the government can take right now: abolishing the activity test, which limits subsidised early childhood education and care, and a wage increase for all early childhood educators. These measures would enable more children to access care, would address the shortage of workers in the sector, would enable more women to work and would boost productivity and the overall economy—win, win, win, win. Will the government take these wins for women in the budget?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks to the member for Goldstein for her question. We share those four objectives that you just mentioned in your question, and we also see policy for early childhood education and care as social policy as well as economic policy. We showed in our first budget—the biggest new commitment that we made in our first budget, in October 2022—an almost $5 billion investment in early childhood education. We saw that then and we see it now as an important way to help families with the cost of living, benefiting something like 1.2 million families. We lifted the subsidy to 90 per cent for people earning up to $80,000. We also made some admittedly modest but I think important and meaningful changes to the activity test in that first round of reform that we did.

So I want to assure the member for Goldstein that I see policy in this area as important economic policy. And I know the Prime Minister does, the Minister for Early Childhood Education does and the Minister for Education does. We all see this as an opportunity to strengthen our economy. We want to make it easier for more parents to work more and earn more if they want to. We want to make it easier for them to earn more and keep more. That's why 97 per cent of early childhood educators will get a bigger tax cut from 1 July.

We also know—coming to the specifics of the question from the member for Goldstein—that there is more work to do in this area. We don't pretend that the important investments we made in the first budget or indeed the work we have been doing for much of this term in office is done. We don't pretend that the job is done. We are enthusiastic supporters of the early childhood sector, and so we are examining other ways that we can strengthen the system. Whether it is the two measures that you mentioned there or whether it's in this budget or in the next budget, there is a willingness from the government to explore those issues that you talked about. We do want to boost pay for early childhood educators. They're doing such an important job. Many of us know, from our own experience with the wonderful early childhood educators of this country, how important they are. We want to see them paid more, we want to see them paid fairly and we also acknowledge the arguments around the activity test. It's just a matter of finding room in a budget, with all of our fiscal constraints—but there is a level of interest. We do not lightly dismiss the suggestions that you mentioned or all the consultation that we do with the sector and with others to see if we can do better.

At the end of the day, Member for Goldstein, we want to see a sector which is well paid. We want to see a sector which recognises the important role that this plays in education and care—not just in education 'or' care. We see the care economy, more broadly, as an absolutely central part of our efforts to strengthen the economy into the future.