Report recommends free or cheap care for all families

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The centre for policy development has recommended three days of free childcare for some families with a small fee for others. A report from the centre argues childcare should be seen in the same light as public education and Medicare.

Transcript

00:00Well, this report is all about different ways to make early childhood care more accessible

00:06and affordable for families across Australia, and the main recommendation is to change how

00:11much families have to pay.

00:13What it's suggested is that there should be three days of free care for disadvantaged

00:19households.

00:20That's any household with a combined income of $80,000 or less.

00:25For families earning more than that, the suggestion is that they would pay just $30 for three

00:30days of care.

00:31If they want their child in care for longer, it would be 15 days for those subsequent days.

00:37Now going on from that, preschool-wise, that's when a kid turns three and four, every single

00:42household would have access to a child for two days of free preschool, followed by a

00:48third day that would cost just $10.

00:51Now the reason behind this is not just being argued by the Centre for Policy Development,

00:57but it's been argued for a long time by a lot of different groups, whether it's actually

01:00business groups, economists, parents groups, and those interested in this sector.

01:05They say that the benefits are numerous.

01:08One of them is that it's really important for children to access some level of education

01:12and care before they go to school, because it's a chance for people to pick up, as in

01:17educators, to pick up on any learning difficulties children may have.

01:22Aside from that as well, it means that it could encourage more parents back into the

01:26workforce sooner, and therefore that means that's more tax revenue for the government.

01:32The cost of this proposal, Lorna, is around $7 billion a year, and the CEO of the Centre

01:38for Policy Development says that's money well spent, because most of it, the government

01:43will get back.

01:46We're already spending $15 billion a year on a system that doesn't work.

01:50The Productivity Commission has found that our model would cost an additional $7 billion,

01:54but we know actually that it would pay for itself, due to increases to GDP and to tax

01:59revenue, to decrease to health costs, crime costs, and others associated with the universal

02:05early childhood system.

02:06So we estimate that pretty much every dollar the government spends on this will make two.

02:11So this is a classic win-win.

02:13It makes good economic sense, it makes good health sense, it makes good education sense.

02:17It's good for women, it's good for families.

02:20It's interesting isn't it, because the government's currently looking at universal childcare as

02:24an option.

02:25So what has it had to say about it?

02:27Yeah, so it was at the last election, Lorna, when Labor made this promise to aim towards

02:32universal childcare, specifically it was a 90% subsidy, so most families will still be

02:37paying a little bit, but not much at all.

02:40In terms of where it's at, what the government's doing, it's launched a series of reviews into

02:44the sector, it's asking experts for their opinions, there's a Productivity Commission

02:49draft report that was released late last year suggesting yes, there should be three days

02:53of free childcare for families earning that combined income of $80,000 or less.

02:59The draft report though didn't talk about what should happen for those remaining families.

03:04And the final report is actually coming out at the end of this month.

03:07It gets given to government first, so we as the public might not see it for a while still.

03:12So at the moment, yes, the government's very much looking into this space, but doesn't

03:17have a policy per se about how it would implement it just yet.

03:21Let's take a listen to the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.

03:25I note the report today that is a positive contribution to the policy debate.

03:31We will await the Productivity Commission report, but I have said on repeated occasions

03:37I think that universal childcare provision, as it is in a range of other countries, is

03:44something that is a valued national asset.

03:47Early education is good for children, it's good for families, but it's also good for our economy.

03:55So at this stage, Lorna, there's no timeline on when the government would make changes.

04:00Experts say any major overhaul to the system would take at least a decade to implement.

04:05The opposition hasn't made its position known on universal access to childcare.

04:11So at this stage, it's only a Labor government that's pushing ahead with that.

04:16And just finally as well, there are huge questions around the workforce.

04:19This is a sector that already has staff shortages.

04:22The question is how you find those extra workers, because obviously there would be

04:26more of a demand for childcare services if it's more affordable for families.

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