2022-03-06
The Greens have today announced their plan for free and universal early childhood education and care. Early childhood education is an essential public service, and yet neither the Coalition nor Labor currently support making this service free for all children.
Early learning costs in Australia are out of control. High fees are a barrier to a child’s early development, make our society less equal, and limit choices for women, who have to give up study, career and work opportunities. For a brief period at the start of Covid-19, early childhood education was made fee-free for all families.
Further, the treatment of early childhood educators is a national shame. Early childhood education was the first sector to be taken off JobKeeper, and educators continue to be paid well below what would be expected of those with their responsibility and skills.
The Greens want to make early childhood education and care free and universal for all children, and ensure professional pay and better working conditions for educators.
As part of the Greens plan, we will push to:
- Invest $19bn over the forward estimates to ensure childcare is free and accessible for everyone
- Extend universal access to early childhood education for all 3 and 4 year olds to 24 hours a week
- Ensure early childhood educators have well paid, secure jobs
- Strengthen early learning for First Nations children through support for Aboriginal community-controlled services
- Phase out for-profit early learning and treat early learning as an essential service.
With this plan, the Greens will work to ensure that children, parents and educators are finally provided with the resourcing and funding they deserve.
Quotes attributable to Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens spokesperson for Education:
“It doesn’t matter where you live, how much you work or study, or how much you earn - all children should have a right to quality early learning and care.
“Free and universal early learning has enormous social and economic benefits for our community, families and children. Too often, women have to give up work and career opportunities because childcare is too expensive or not available.
“As a migrant parent with no family in Australia, I would not have had the opportunity to study or to embark on my engineering career if it wasn't for affordable childcare at my university.
“Fee-free childcare and early learning can't just be a short-term bandaid at the time of crisis. Our broken, underfunded system with rising out of pocket expenses for families must be fixed once and for all.
“Early childhood educators do one of the most important jobs of teaching and caring for children at one of the most important times of their development. They deserve higher pay and fair conditions.
“We need strong and sustained investment to make early childhood education free, and a workforce strategy that deals directly with issues of low pay and understaffing.
“It's a national shame that there are so many centres being run as for-profit businesses, making money from what should be considered an essential service. Education should never be for profit.”
Quotes attributable to Steph Hodgins-May, Greens candidate for Macnamara:
“In Macnamara, parents are desperate for free, accessible childcare - especially at community-run centers.
“Investing in early learning is not just a winning policy for women and children. It is a winning policy for children’s futures, innovation and healthy and safe communities.
“In high-growth areas, such as Fishermen’s Bend which is expected to be home to 80,000 families, we must invest in publicly owned childcare now to set ourselves up for the future.
“As the mother of a 4 year old, I know how hard it is to find a childcare provider which suits your needs: childcare is an essential service and should not be an afterthought or left up to the whims of the private sector”