How Families will Benefit

An Albanese Labor Government will reduce the cost of child care and make it easier for mums, children and working families to get ahead.

Labor will:

• Lift the maximum child care subsidy rate to 90 per cent for families for the first child in care;
  
  
• Increase child care subsidy rates for every family with one child in care earning less than $530,000 in household income;
  
  
• Keep higher child care subsidy rates for the second and additional children in care;
  
  
• Extend the increased subsidy to outside school hours care.

96 per cent of Australian families will be better off under Labor’s child care reforms – 1.26 million families.

We’ll also get the ACCC to design a price regulation mechanism to drive out of pocket costs down for good, and the Productivity Commission will conduct a comprehensive review of the sector with the aim of implementing a universal 90 per cent subsidy for all families.

Labor will also develop and implement a whole of government Early Years Strategy to create a new integrated approach to the early years and develop of program of action.

Labor will invest approximately $5.4 billion to make child care cheaper, starting from July 2023.

Why do we need this?

Scott Morrison’s child care system has completely failed Australian families.

The cost of child care has never been higher than it is now.

Over the past 12 months, child care costs soared by 6.5 per cent – almost double the rate of inflation. Fees have increased by 41 per cent since the Liberals came to government.

Child care costs are eating a bigger and bigger hole in household budgets and are putting more financial strain on Australian families.

The cost of early learning is a major cost of living issue for working families and it is locking parents out of the workforce. Almost 73,000 families are locked out of the child care system because it’s unaffordable – meaning their children are missing out on important early learning and women are not able to work the hours they want.

Under Scott Morrison’s recent changes to the subsidy, hundreds of thousands of families will miss out on relief compared to Labor’s Cheaper Child Care Plan. And the Government still has no plans to control fees in the future.