Editorial: Childcare subsidies are a lifeline for families

Get any group of parents of pre-school aged children together and it’s an inevitability that talk will eventually turn to child care, and the complicated system of taxpayer-funded subsidies on which the system relies.

For good reason.

For thousands of Australian families, childcare subsidies are an essential lifeline. Without them, the exorbitant cost of child care — often in excess of $150 per day per child — would keep many parents, mostly women, out of the workforce for years longer than necessary.

That would come at a significant cost to the economy. Getting mums back into the workforce after kids is an important driver of productivity. There’s also a benefit to kids themselves of early education and socialisation.

So it’s little wonder that Anthony Albanese is keen to make his Government’s commitment to expand eligibility for subsidies and spend $1 billion building new childcare centres in under-serviced regional and outer-suburban areas a key election battleground.

Wednesday was the third day of the Prime Minister’s child care policy blitz, announcing at a campaign-style rally in Brisbane his plan to dump the activity test which requires parents to be working, studying, volunteering or looking for work to access subsidies.

Labor’s policy would guarantee families earning less than $530,000 combined income, three days a week of subsidised care. Should families

WA is likely to be a big winner from the policy to build 160 new centres in under-serviced areas, given regional WA has some of the lowest levels of accessibility anywhere in the country.

The move has been broadly welcomed by the sector and business groups, though there’s no doubt building and staffing centres in far-flung areas which already struggle to attract and retain workers will be immensely challenging. That’s not to mention the fact Australia is already suffering a significant shortage of childcare workers.

But that hasn’t dampened Mr Albanese’s enthusiasm, declaring the commitment would go far deeper than “just signing off on the plans and walking away”.

Like that cohort doing battle in the trenches of the early years of parenthood, child care is all the Prime Minister wants to talk about.

The problem for him is that the rest of the country is keen to talk about other issues.

Issues such as the the suffocating cost of living. Expanding child care subsidies will help those families directly affected, but will do nothing for the millions without kids in child care, who are also struggling to make ends meet as inflation continues to put household budgets under enormous pressure.

As we approach the end of the year, Australians want to know from their Government that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and that things eventually will get easier. At the moment, they’re not getting that assurance.

Mr Albanese may want to keep the conversation on his policy pitches, but he may find voters are keen to change the subject.