Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

The government will not be supporting the Greens amendment. The amendment moved by Senator Duniam is for a short inquiry, to come back before the budget, on 21 March. As senators will know, the three-day guarantee is Labor policy. It's a decision of the Labor government that we have funded the three-day guarantee, and we have funded it to start from January 2026. We believe that every child has the right to subsidised access to early education and care, regardless of whether their parent is in work, in training or looking for work.

We accept and have led the way on dealing with the activity test. No government has dealt with it. We've come in, we've made investments in early education and care, and we've given early educators a wage increase, which they deserve. The next step is to deal with the activity test, or what we are referring to as the three-day guarantee. That will come into place in January 2026, so we see no reason to stop the coalition having a look at this bill. I think they've already opposed the three-day guarantee—but, anyway, have a look at it and defend any opposition to the three-day guarantee through an inquiry process.