The Productivity Commission wants to ensure all children have access to three days of early childhood education and care.

The Productivity Commission wants to ensure all children have access to three days of early childhood education and care.Credit:Oscar Colman

Commissioner Martin Stokie said getting lower-income families at least three days of care a week was the first step.

“The first stage needs to be focused on those families that aren’t attending and those children who are missing out,” he said.

Scrapping the work and study requirements for subsidies for the first three days of care,as well as covering the hourly rate cap for families who earn $80,000 or less would add an estimated $2.5 billion a year to the federal childcare bill.

Loading

The commission estimated that fully subsided care for low-income families would lead to a lift in total hours worked by the equivalent of 207,000 full-time workers,bringing in an additional $180 million in income tax.

The report canvassed several scenarios for universal access to childcare,including a flat $10-a-day fee similar to the Canadian model.

But Commissioner Stokie said there simply weren’t enough childcare workers or centres,so there needed to be a staged rollout of reforms.

Advertisement

“It’s critical. Without addressing the educator and teacher challenges we can’t do anything,” he said.

Only about 8 per cent of the country has enough access to centre-based daycare to be able to provide at least three days of care for every child aged zero to five,the report found.

Stokie said that was why the draft report recommends relaxing the activity test used to qualify for subsidies rather than scrapping it,as the commission was conscious that families seeking cheaper childcare on a fourth or fifth day could crowd out those who currently can’t access any.

“At the moment,there isn’t sufficient services,there aren’t enough educators and teachers to provide the level of education and care to even deliver on that,” Stokie said.

“It may well be that it’s just simpler and easier to abolish the activity test in its entirety,but we are very much conscious of staging any reforms to ensure that we don’t have undue bottlenecks or crowding out of those children who would need and benefit most from early childhood education and care.”

The federal government directed the Productivity Commission to investigate how the government could chart a course towards universal,affordable early childhood education and care. The draft report is open to submissions,with a final report due by June 30 next year.

Loading

That report will also take in findings from the consumer watchdog’s inquiry into childcare costs,which is due by the end of this year.

Education Minister Jason Clare said the government has announced funding for 55 new services in rural and regional communities over the past 17 months,as well as funding to keep an additional 441 existing services open.

Clare said the government’s cheaper childcare package had helped cut the cost of childcare by 13.2 per cent,but acknowledged there was more work to do.

“The Productivity Commission’s inquiry will help chart a course to a universal early childhood education and care system. I encourage all those interested to provide their feedback on the draft report.”

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news,views and expert analysis.Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.

License this article

Most Viewed in Politics

Loading