BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE

APRIL 10, 2025 - UPDATED APRIL 23, 2025

The major parties are campaigning hard to win the hearts and minds of voters ahead of the 2025 federal election, and although you will have your own political leaning, childcare is an issue that affects us all.  

This is true whether you’re planning a family, raising children, employing people with kids, working in childcare or simply wanting to see our nation thrive; so it’s important to know what the major parties are offering around early childhood education and care (ECEC). 

To help you do this, The Parenthood has released an Early Learning Policy Scorecard.  

They’ve looked at the major parties’ commitments around childcare quality, cost and affordability, and found that – at present – The Greens are the only party that have made a full commitment to: 

• Support a three-day guarantee for all children to attend ECEC; 

• Support better wages for early childhood educators; 

• Increase the number of childcare places in childcare deserts (where three or more children are competing for one place); 

• Boost investment in ECEC services controlled by Aboriginal communities; 

• Make childcare free for low income families, and cap it at $10 a day for three days per week for the rest of us;  

• Invest in the expansion of the Inclusion Support Program and in an Inclusion Development Fund, AND 

• Establish a national body that will be responsible for rolling out a universal early learning system that ensures access for every early learner.  
  
  

Although The Greens get a seven outta seven in The Parenthood’s Scorecard, Labor has fully or partially committed to six of the above policy recommendations, and there’s no doubt that Labor wants to build a quality ECEC system that’s affordable, accessible and fair for all.  

In their first term, Labor’s cheaper child care policies have benefitted more than one million families, and they’ve rolled out the first of two wage rises for early childhood educators, via the Worker Retention Payment.  

Going forward, Labor’s 3 Day Guarantee means that the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test will be scrapped from January 2026, and families will be eligible for at least three days of subsidised ECEC per week, regardless of the work or study they do. 

Removing the Activity Test was recommended by the Productivity Commission in its final childcare inquiry report, and Labor says families earning between $50,000 to $100,000 will be better off under the 3 Day Guarantee. 

If re-elected, Labor is also promising to invest $1 billion in a Building Early Education Fund, which will see 160 ECEC services being built or expanded in areas of need, such as the outer suburbs and regional Australia.   

Meanwhile, the leader of the Liberal party, Peter Dutton, has promised to reinstate the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test if he's elected. 

This will scrap Labor’s plans for the 3 Day Guarantee, and families will have to keep doing a certain amount of work, study or other recognised activity, in order to get the Child Care Subsidy.

The Liberal-National Coalition has also promised a $20 billion Regional Australia Future Fund, which will aim to end childcare deserts, among other things. 

The Fund is good news for country people, and as well as ending childcare deserts, it also seeks to improve healthcare access and fund more roads and infrastructure in the regions.  

The National party has also gone on record saying it will invest $100 million to give regional and rural families more choice around childcare.

If elected, the Coalition government will set up a Raising the Regions Program to deliver flexible and innovative approaches to ECEC in regional and rural areas where childcare is hard (or impossible) to access.

This could mean that flexible alternatives to long day care may be offered, such as mobile day care, childcare delivered outdoors, family day care in community spaces, or childcare provided in workplaces.

Although the federal election is drawing closer, a lot can still happen, and our pollies are campaigning hard to win our votes.   

Whether you’re a staunch supporter of one party or a swing voter, make sure you keep up with the news cycle and keep childcare front-of-mind, because a great ECEC system has benefits for our little learners, family budgets, employment prospects and nation.