Australia’s childcare system is broken and needs fixing.
Right now, for too many Australian families, the high cost of early education and care is putting a huge strain on household budgets.
Kids across the country are being denied early learning critical to their development, and parents & carers are missing out on crucial paid work.
All children, no matter their primary carers’ income, employment status or postcode, deserve the best start in life. We need a universal early years education system, just like we have with schools.
Change is needed and the Greens have a plan to deliver free early education and care for every child.
Our plan for free, universal, and high-quality early childhood education and care will:
- Provide free early years education and care to all children
- Extend universal access to early preschool to 30 hours a week for all four-year-olds and three-year-old
- Fix wait lists and create more places, by boosting funds to non-profit and community services and establishing a ‘childcare deserts’ fund
- Support early childhood educators by investing $10 million to implement the National Children’s Education and Care Workforce Strategy
- Boost support for First Nations community-controlled childcare services
- Make childcare more inclusive and accessible for disabled children
- Establish an independent Early Childhood Education and Care Commission to enforce quality and to support, advise and monitor the government’s progress towards universal childcare
This investment is not only long overdue, it’s critical to ensuring all children have the best start in life.
Did you know?
Universal early childhood education is part of the Greens’ plan to make education free for life. We want to provide free education from childhood through school, uni and TAFE. Read more about our plan here.