Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Minister for Early Childhood Education (Minister Watt) to a question without notice I asked today relating to early childhood education.

The Productivity Commission report released today paints a picture of a broken system where educators are leaving the industry in droves due to poor working conditions and inadequate wages, a system where families are being left behind due to a lack of access and rising fees amid a cost-of-living crisis. The report builds on years of work by academics, advocates and educators that shows a clear pathway to a universal childhood education system in Australia, work that has largely been ignored by successive governments.

The Greens took free universal child care to the last election and campaigned on it for decades before then. We believe that early education is a fundamental right, just like primary and secondary college. We welcome the commission's road map towards a universal system, including free child care for low-income families. Our question for the government now, which I asked repeatedly in question time today but failed to receive a response on, is: when will the government finally act to make child care free?

The reality is that, in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, every day that the Labor government delays implementing these critical reforms is a day that kids will miss out on early education and their parents will miss out on critical paid work. Minister Watt's deflection speaks volumes about this government's disregard for families doing it tough across the country. Time and time again this government has given excuses for its inaction on delivering universal early-years learning. This year, we've had two government commissioned reports on child care released—the ACCC and the Productivity Commission—both of which confirmed what we already know about our broken childcare system in this country. Now, the government is claiming that it needs more time to consult. Minister, I said it in question time and I'll say it again, we must move beyond conversation to action, concrete action, to make child care genuinely universal and free.

And then there's the activity test. Back in August I asked Minister Watt why the Labor government wasn't abolishing the punitive childcare activity test. This is a test that links children's access to subsidised early childhood education and care to their parents' participation in labour market activities. This is a test that keeps around 40,000 parents out of paid work and about 160,000 children locked out of an early childhood education. This is a test that prevents the most disadvantaged kids from an early education. The Greens have long campaigned for the cruel and unfair subsidy activity test to be abolished. We recognise that a genuinely universal and high-quality early education system doesn't discriminate based on a person's income.

When I asked Minister Watt back in August if the government would abolish this test, he said that it was waiting for the Productivity Commission to release its final report, the same report that it has had in its hands since June. Well, the Productivity Commission reported back today publicly that we should abolish the activity test. So I asked Minister Watt if now, finally, the government would commit to abolishing it, but he would not answer the question.

Our childcare system in this country is broken and in need of urgent reform. Families know it. The sector knows it. Educators know it. The Greens know it and so does the Productivity Commission. Now it's time for the government to stop kicking the can down the road and to get on with the job that it has been tasked to do. It's time for Labor to step up and make child care in this country genuinely free, high quality and universally accessible. It's time for Labor to act.

Question agreed to.