Russell Broadbent here, Member for Monash.
The term ‘universal childcare’ sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it?
It implies that childcare will be fair, accessible, and the right decision for every family.
Judith Sloan in The Australian, says the Prime Minister plans to make universal childcare a key element of his election campaign.
But when I started peeling back the layers of this policy, I noticed a few red flags.
Firstly, as Judith says: ‘the biggest winners will be high-income earners who currently receive proportionately lower childcare fee subsidies than those on lower incomes.’
Doesn’t sound very fair now, does it?
It’s important to understand that sending children to childcare is not a first option for many Australian families, even though it may be becoming the norm. In fact, I think many parents are reticent to use childcare too soon – many want to spend time with their children, especially when they’re babies.
But in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, most parents have no choice but to rely on two incomes to pay the mortgage and feed the kids.
So it appears childcare has become a rather lucrative business model for the private sector.
In Melbourne, centre-based childcare, which is the most common option, costs anywhere between $70 to $185 dollars PER DAY.
When you have multiple kids to factor in, it hardly makes the return to work worth it.
The Productivity Commission recommends that 30 hours, or three days, per week should be made available to all children aged up to five years.
Modelling suggests that this policy will have a small impact on workforce participation, adding an additional 17,000 full time equivalent workers.
According to Judith Sloan, the cost of Universal Childcare works out to be more than $200,000 per job created.
Doesn’t seem like the best use of taxpayer dollars to me.
At the end of the day, we all want what’s best for our kids and whatever makes life easier for parents.
Universal Childcare sounds like a great idea. But as I said earlier this childcare policy puzzle has a few missing pieces.
That’s justice as I see it.
