Monday 3 February
Families’ advocates have welcomed the news the Federal Government will introduce legislation within the fortnight to make early childhood education more accessible and affordable.
Analysis from Impact Economics and Policy has found scrapping the Child Care Subsidy “Activity Test” could allow 126,000 children from low-income families to access early childhood education.
CEO of the Parenthood, Georgie Dent, said this was good for children, parents and the economy, with single-mother-families benefiting in particular.
“Early childhood education is a fundamental building block for children’s cognitive, social and emotional development, but currently in Australia the “Activity Test” denies too many children the opportunity to participate,” Ms Dent said. “Removing the Activity Test is the most significant step towards creating truly universal early education and care.”
“Five year olds around the country are currently heading off to school for the first time, and unfortunately one in five is already developmentally vulnerable. In regional and rural areas it’s closer to 2 in five students. A lack of access to early childhood education has a lot to do with that.”
The Activity Test requires parents to be working, studying or volunteering in order to receive the Child Care Subsidy, with higher subsidies for higher “activity” hours.
But Ms Dent said this created a catch-22 for many parents, especially single mothers or those in insecure and unpredictable employment.
“It can take months to get a childcare place, so you can’t get a job until you have secured childcare, but you can’t afford to secure childcare until you have a job,” Ms Dent said.
“This is entrenching inequity. The families who are being locked out of early childhood education by the Activity Test are overwhelmingly low-income families, single-mother families, and First Nations and culturally diverse families.”
Reforming or removing the Activity Test has been recommended by the Productivity Commission, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Business Council of Australia and dozens of other organisations.
Impact Economics and Policy also found it could allow 40,000 parents to reenter the workforce, boosting the economy by $4.4 billion.
“We really hope this legislation gets through because it’s a monumental win for children, parents and the economy. A vote against this would be a vote to deny up to 126,000 Australian children from low-income families a fair start to their education,” Ms Dent said.
“It compliments the government’s commitment to spend $1 billion building or expanding 260 early learning centres in communities where there’s a shortage, and the recent boost to educators’ wages which is keeping more educators in the sector.”