For the first time, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced his support for a flat-fee system of universal childcare, where parents would pay no more than $10 or $20 a day.
The flat-fee model would also involve building childcare centres on the sites of public schools.
Ahead of the upcoming federal election, the pledge sees Albanese recommitted to his “big vision” of affordable early learning for all.
“The big vision is certainly there as well, that everyone would pay no more than a limited amount that was affordable, but we need to get there in stages,” Albanese said at a business lunch in Melbourne, as reported by The Australian Financial Review.
“The objective of universal, affordable childcare is one I certainly share,” he said, adding that the next step would be the co-location of childcare centres on public school grounds.
“One of the things that we’ll be talking with the [Victorian] premier about, post-election, and other premiers and chief ministers as well, is the model of how do you get more childcare centres co-located in schools to avoid the double drop-off,” Albanese said.
He also said his government has been working with leaders in the sector to get to this vision, including organisations like The Parenthood.
CEO of the Parenthood, Georgie Dent welcomed the news, saying: “With 71 per cent of parents supporting a fixed-fee model, this pledge could be a game-changer at the next election.”
“Reform of this scale and significance and complexity needs to be pursued in stages. The changes delivered during this term of the Albanese Government towards universal early childhood education and care are significant.”
In September last year, the Productivity Commission’s primary recommendation was that the current subsidy system be boosted. The recommendation preferred spending a minimum $4.7 billion extra a year towards the current system, in place of a flat-fee model it said would cost $8.3 billion a year extra.
However, this was criticised as simply putting billions towards a system that has already failed to deliver results.
Albanese’s latest pledge for a flat-fee model confirms the government’s rejection of the Productivity Commission’s recommendation.
Before the 2022 election, the prime minister nominated universal childcare as a policy ambition, but the estimated additional cost has slowed progress.
This term, the government says it has taken major steps towards universal childcare, citing the increase to the childcare rebate by $4.7 billion over four years, locking in the workforce witha taxpayer-funded 15 per cent wage rise and removing the activity test for three days a week, beginning in 2026.