Mary Doyle (Aston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Early Childhood Education. What action is the Albanese Labor government taking to make early childhood education more affordable for families [inaudible] to cheaper and more accessible child care?

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

I thank the member for Aston for her question. She's such a passionate advocate for children and families in Aston. And, like all the members on this side of the House, the member for Aston has continuously voted to support the families and the children in her electorate through cost-of-living measures that those opposite failed to vote for. It demonstrates just how much she really cares for families and children in Aston.

When we came into office, we inherited an early childhood education and care sector that was in crisis. It really was in crisis. They couldn't find workers. There were all sorts of issues, particularly around the workforce. And it was expensive; the price kept on going up for parents. And we've made progress on reform. We've made significant progress on reform towards a quality, universal early childhood education and care service that works for every single Australian child, informed by our ACCC inquiry and by our PC inquiry.

Since our coming into government, there are now around 42,000 more educators in the sector,1,189 more services in the sector, 30 per cent of which are outside of major cities, and around 97,000 more children in early childhood education and care. Our cheaper child care reforms decreased the out-of-pocket costs by 17 per cent when they were first introduced. Now, that means an average family is $4,400 better off. We're building on that, of course, by capping fee increases as part of our worker wage rise. Recently, we introduced our three-day guarantee, scrapping the Liberals' prohibitive activity test. That means 70,000 families will save $1,370 a year.

Now, our reform rests on retaining and building a strong workforce. That's why we have a policy for fee-free TAFE. That's why we increased the wages of early childhood educators. But our reform does not stop there. We know there's more to do. We've got $1 billion set aside to build early childhood education and care services where they're needed, and a service delivery price which will help us underpin future reform.

But I'm asked about threats. Let us start with the fact that the opposition has absolutely no plan, no vision and no policy for early childhood education and care. Instead, it has a plan—a secret plan—to cut essential services. We want to build; they want to cut. (Time expired)