The Australian Labor 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. Parents want to know they can trust their child care service to provide a safe and happy learning environment for their children.

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

Overall, we are providing $17.1 billion for early childhood education and child care over four years – $10 billion more than that provided in the last four years of the Howard Government.  This includes:
 

• $14.4 billion over four years for the Child Care Rebate and the Child Care Benefit to help Australian parents with the cost of child care
• $955 million over five years to roll out universal access to early learning for all Australian four year olds
• $293 million over six years to deliver 38 Children and Family Centres in areas of high need as part of the National Partnership of Indigenous Early Childhood Development
• $273.7 million to raise the quality of early childhood education and child care
• $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
• $32.5 million over five years to role out the Home Interaction Program for disadvantaged children
• $24.5 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 from $4354 to $7,500 - an increase of some 72 per cent.  ABS statistics show that costs to parents fell by over 20% as a result.

And we will help ease cost of living pressures being faced by many families by giving families the option to receive Child Care Rebate payments fortnightly from 1 July 2011.

This means that for the first time parents will be able to choose to access to the 50% Child Care Rebate at the time that they incur their child care fees, making it easier to manage the out-of-pocket cost of child care.

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.

We are also improving information for parents and providing more transparency for the sector.  We have established mychild.gov.au which includes a searchable database of 14,000 child care services - and includes 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.