Albanese promises three-day-a-week childcare subsidy
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The news: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will on Wednesday pledge to install subsidised childcare for three days a week and axe the controversial activity test in a major speech which sets out his second-term vision to create universal childcare.
The context: The Albanese government has for months been working on a plan to move to universal childcare, which diverges from the Productivity Commission’s recommendation to rejig the existing settings.
Instead, Albanese and his cabinet have been considering a model in which childcare is set at between $10 and $20 a day, up to three days a week. Capital Brief reported last week that the proposal had already gone to the expenditure review committee of cabinet.
In a speech at the Building Early Education for Australia’s Future event in Brisbane on Wednesday, Albanese will confirm the plan for childcare subsidies of three days a week to replace the current activity test, which requires recipients to at least look for a job before receiving payments.
Every family earning up to $530,000 will have access to the three-day-a-week childcare subsidy.
What they said: “Today I announce we will replace the Liberals’ Activity Test with a new Three Day Guarantee in early education,” Albanese will say, according to a draft of the speech.
“Our Three Day Guarantee will ensure every family can afford three days of high-quality early education.
“Three days of early education: affordable for every family, funded for every child, building a better education system every step of the way.
“... Let me be clear: universal and accessible doesn’t mean compulsory or mandatory. The choice will be up to parents, as always, as it should be. But we want families to have a real choice.
“We want to make sure that your decision isn’t dictated by where you live, or what you do for a living. It’s driven by one thing only, what you want for your child.”
The source: PMO
