The Rudd Government has driven an ambitious and unprecedented national reform agenda for early childhood education and child care. We have done this because the research is clear that a child’s experience in their first five years sets the course for the rest of their life. It shapes their future — their health, learning and social development. And we want to make sure that their future is bright.  

And we know child care is important for parents – enabling them to participate in the workforce.

For the first time ever we have a national vision for early childhood that all Australian Governments have signed up to – that by 2020 all children have the best start in life to create a better future for themselves and for the nation.  It is a vision that is guiding our national response and effort to improve outcomes for all Australia’s children.  

We are delivering high quality, accessible and affordable early education and care for Australian parents and their children.

Overall, we are providing $16 billion for early childhood education and child care over four years – more than double that provided in the last four years of the Howard Government.  This includes:
• $13.1 billion over four years for the Child Care Rebate ($4.9 billion) and the Child Care Benefit ($8.2 billion) to help Australian parents with the cost of child care
• $955 million over five years to role out universal access to early learning for all Australian four year olds
• $293 million over six years to deliver 35 Children and Family Centres in areas of high need as part of the National Partnership of Indigenous Early Childhood Development
• $126 million over four years to train and retain high quality early education and child care workforce
• $114.5 million to establish 38 new early learning and care centres
• $61 million to roll out new quality standards with lower staff to child ratios and high staff qualifications
• $32.5 million over five years to role out the Home Interaction Program for disadvantaged children
• $21.9 million to roll out the Australian Early Development Index across the country.

Crucially, we delivered on our election commitment to increase the Child Care Rebate to 50 per cent of out-of-pocket expenses in 2008 and increased the maximum annual amount per child to $7778 in 2009.  ABS statistics that costs to parents fell by over 20% as a result.
 
We are also delivering on our commitment to raise the quality of early childhood education and child care.  At the December 2009 COAG endorsed a new National Quality Framework which will:
- improve staff to child ratios so that each child gets more individual time and attention;
- introduce staff qualification requirements so staff are better able to lead activities that inspire youngsters and help them learn and develop;
- include a new ratings system so parents know the quality of care on offer and can make informed choices; and
- reduce regulation burden so services only have to deal with one regulator.

For the first time we will have a nationally consistent early childhood education and child care.

We are also delivering on transparency.  We have established mychild.gov.au which includes a searchable database of over 8,000 child care centres - and included information on location, services, fees and vacancies.  This means parents can easily access the information they need to find care that suits their family's needs.  The Government recently launched the Child Care Estimator on mychild.gov.au which will help parents estimate their Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate - which the Australian Government provides to assist families with child care costs.