During this Federal Election campaign, we’ve been working intensively to ensure the next government prioritises major education and care reforms including:
- A funding system that delivers 30 hours of free or low cost, high quality early education and care for all children 0 – 5 years and an equivalent 3 days for school age children in outside school hours care.
- Funding reform to ensure affordable early education and care for all families, regardless of where they live.
- Growing community managed services to meet the needs of all children and families.
- Setting children up for lifelong success by funding inclusion support services that reflect what’s actually needed by children and families.
- A qualified valued workforce to deliver universal education and care.
Major party election commitments
Early childhood education and care has been a key area of interest throughout the Federal Election campaign, with different policies outlined by major parties.
The Prime Minister has outlined his commitment for creating a high quality universal early education and care system including:
- Funding professional pay to attract and retain qualified well supported early educators and teachers
- Helping communities to grow new services that meet the particular needs of local children and families through a $1 billion Building Early Education Fund
- Removing the Activity Test to establish a Three Day Guarantee for early childhood education and care.
The Liberal/National Coalition has made public commitments to:
- Reinstate the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test.
- Create a $100m grant program to be offered to providers setting up ‘flexible and innovative alternatives’ to the long daycare model, particularly in regional communities.
- Drive improvements to maintain low out-of-pocket child care costs for families
- Keep the $1 billion Building Early Education Fund.
What’s next?
Regardless of who wins the 3 May election, CELA will continue to work intensively with the Federal Government to prioritise reforms that will unlock the potential of community and small providers.
This includes:
- providing administrative and governance support via a Community Managed Early Childhood Education & Care Business Hub to ensure services can focus on high quality service delivery
- growing new community managed services using CELA’s Local Champion model
- using federal Family Assistance Law and state regulatory levers to drive a national uplift in high quality, safe early education and care services for children.
This is an unprecedented moment where families and our sector are ready for change. CELA will work with the next Federal Government to seize this opportunity on behalf of small and community providers.
About CELA
Community Early Learning Australia is a not for profit organisation with a focus on amplifying the value of early learning for every child across Australia - representing our members and uniting our sector as a force for quality education and care.