First our society made it undesirable for women to work outside their homes. ( They should be looking after their children, not stealing men’s jobs)! Then it became impossible for families to live on a single income. ( We need more women in the tax-paying workforce, not loafing at home with their unwelcome spawn)! Now women must work outside their home, but they can’t afford to pay anyone to look after the children. (Women must work and pay taxes - we have no value at all for child rearing, as long as the kids survive long enough to pay taxes)! But the population is dropping. Taxpayers will soon be very old and very rare. Women are tired of being used. If children are valued, women will only know this if society demonstrates it. Show us the money, and we’ll talk.
On behalf of Early Childhood Australia I was pleased to join calls today for the Federal Government to use the 2024 Federal Budget to properly fund a wage increase for early childhood educators and teachers and abolish the activity test on the Child Care Subsidy. Both measures are important steps towards a high quality, universal system of early childhood education and care that delivers genuine benefits to young children and families, particularly women. The activity test was misguided policy that has never acted as an 'incentive to work' but rather a barrier to workforce re-engagement, particularly for women with casual or insecure jobs. It is confusing and unnecessarily bureaucratic. This has meant that many children, particularly those in low income households are missing out on early learning. If we fix this now the return on investment will boost budget bottom lines for years to come. Increasing educator wages is also a good investment to stem the loss of highly skilled and qualified people from the early childhood sector because all the passion in the world doesn't pay the bills. There is compelling evidence that educators deserve a substantial increase and families cannot carry the cost of that, public investment is critical. The cost of not acting needs to be counted - many services are already operating at reduced capacity due to staff shortages, how many more families will be affected before action is taken? Terrific leadership and advocacy from Zoe Daniel, Monique Ryan, Dr Sophie Scamps MP, Allegra Spender, Mehreen Faruqi, Georgie Dent, Kate Carnell, Sue Morphet and others who joined the call. I hope that PM Anthony Albanese, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Education Minister Jason Clare MP will act on the multiple reports provided to government that have recommended these changes. Budgets are always about choices and it is time to prioritize access to early education for children at risk of disadvantage, boost women's workforce participation and focus on long-term economic benefits. #earlychildhood #earlychildhoodeducation #everyonebenefits #thrivebyfive