I have been campaigning for affordable, accessible, quality early childhood education and care for so long that my eldest child, who enlightened me to the system’s perils, is now closer to finishing secondary school than starting kindergarten.
Many others have been campaigning for this cause for far longer. As CEO of The Parenthood for the past 4.5 years I’ve been single-minded in pursuit of reform.
Our early family days juggling work, toddlers, the crazy commutes we traversed to get places for each of our children and the exorbitant and inexplicably complicated childcare bills are as vivid as ever.
The madness of that undertaking propels me to this day. Not because we—or our children—were failed but because it was so easy to see the ways in which the system was designed to fail too many mothers and children.
Yes, it would, in an ideal world fail as many dads as mums but that isn’t the reality yet because when childcare isn’t affordable or available it is the employment and financial security of mums that dives. And, ironically, that will never change until we have truly universal, affordable early childhood education and care.
In 2011 it took us three months to secure a place for our daughter four days a week. It was in the CBD and neither my husband nor I worked in the city. We took our delightful toddler (TODDLER) in and out of the city by bus eight times a week … before making our way to our own workplaces 15 minutes out of the city.
It cost $165 per day and our subsidy ran out after 3 months so we were then paying $660 a week. That was more than our weekly rent.
In 2013, when I returned to work three days a week after having a second delightful daughter, our two small girls enrolled in two different daycare services…we couldn’t get both girls in the same service. Attempting the double drop off with a one-year-old and a three-year-old without parking available was a nightmare. We lasted two weeks.
We employed an INCREDIBLE nanny three days a week for three months to look after our youngest daughter until she could attend the same service as her big sister. We paid the nanny more than I earned each week. And that was before counting the fees for our three-year-old.
In 2014 we moved across Sydney in search of more space. We rented a great little house but we couldn’t get our daughters into childcare in our suburb for six months.
So for six months I drove two small girls back across the Harbour Bridge in peak hour traffic – morning and evening. I wrote a column at the time inviting either the then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott or then-Treasurer Joe Hockey to come with me for the drive.
The logistics were utterly mad, as was the cost. But I knew then – as I know now – that we were incredibly lucky. We could make it work. While the maths didn’t actually work in the short-term, we were able to count that loss knowing that long-term we would come out on top. We had all the privileges a young family could hope for (save for family living nearby) but even so it was clear how much the system was working against children and parents.
It’s why last week’s announcement of the federal government’s vision for universal early childhood education and care felt like Christmas had come early.
The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivered a speech and package that recognised the multiple difficult realities that different families and children face when it comes to childcare.
From not being able to find a position, to being denied a subsidy, to the cost being unaffordable, to staff shortages, the Prime Minister acknowledged each of these systemic barriers.
These barriers were not trivialised or minimised or dismissed.
Early childhood education and care is—first and foremost—about supporting the development, wellbeing and education of children. Participating is an opportunity every child—in their own right—deserves.
And, accessible and affordable childcare is not an indulgent luxury, rather it is essential infrastructure that allows parents to participate in the paid workforce to the extent their family chooses or needs.
The Prime Minister acknowledged this isn’t an either or: it’s both critical for children regardless of their parents’ employment status and critical to enable families to make ends meet.
The notion that every child should have the opportunity to access at least three days a week of subsidised quality early childhood education and care is a profound paradigm shift.
It recognises that early childhood education and care is a critical component of our education system and that the entitlement to participate sits with the child – not a parent.
Investing $1 billion to build or expand 160 services in regional, rural and remote communities is welcome.
So is scrapping the subsidy calculation system, known as ‘The Activity Test’ – which determines the amount of parents’ subsidy based on the number of hours they work.
We wouldn’t dream of blocking a child from participating in primary school if their parents didn’t work certain hours and we shouldn’t accept that in the early years. It disproportionately locks out First Nations children and children from low-income and disadvantaged households, who are the most likely to benefit the most from early learning, yet are currently least likely to participate.
Children who attend high quality early learning are more likely to arrive at school developmentally on track than children who don’t. The Activity Test has stood in the way of too many children having access to that opportunity.
The commitment to explore a new funding model for early childhood education and care is welcome. The Child Care Subsidy has proved itself – time and time again – ineffective at putting downward pressure on the out of pocket cost of childcare.
This package represents the most substantive policy response to the major barriers to early childhood education and care in Australia’s history and leaves the door open for further reform.
For the longest time it’s been an uphill battle to get early education and care taken seriously.
To have the Prime Minister and commonwealth government openly recognise it as a systemic, structural barrier that holds too many children, parents, families and communities back is no small feat. It is destined to be a headline issue at the next federal election and that sentence itself is thrilling. Back in 2011 I could only dare to hope.
Featured image: Georgie Dent, speaking on the Today Show earlier this year.