Childcare under a Labor Government:  What the change in government means for you.

While last Saturday’s election result is going to mean lots of change in Australia, one thing we know for sure is that the vast majority of working parents with children in childcare will be better off financially.

Under the freshly minted Labor Government’s Plan for Cheaper Childcare we can expect to see:

• a raising of the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) to 90 per cent for the first child in care,
• an increase in CCS rates for families earning less than $530,000,
• higher CCS rates for second and additional kids and
• an extension of the subsidy to include outside school hours and vacation care.

Labor says this will leave 96 per cent of Australian families using childcare better off and modelling by KindiCare supports this.   

We tested a range of scenarios using the KindiCare Election Calculator and under all of them the cost of childcare reduced for the average Australian family.

We ran modelling based on one child aged 9 months and two children aged 9 months and 2.5 years old in fulltime care, using $121.31 (0-12 months) and $119.33 (25-36 months) as the average fees, and a household income of $96,018.00 and $82,742.40, (average earnings for men and women in November 2021, according to ABS figures).

Under both these scenarios KindiCare calculations showed that the average Australian family would see a big drop in the cost of childcare under Labor’s Plan for Cheaper Childcare with the examples modelled showing a saving of between $6,386 and $11,013 per year.

KindiCare founder Benjamin Balk says childcare is one of the main reasons Labor won the election, and that cost, and lack of availability, are not only of concern to families but to businesses who can’t find staff. 

“Too often, particularly during an election cycle, the topic of childcare is treated as a welfare consideration, when it is actually an economic reform that supports the growth and development of our children, enables greater workforce productivity in an environment of skills shortages and, most importantly, contributes substantially to closing the gender wage gap and the long-term financial security of Australia’s working mums.”

Labor says it will invest around $5.4 billion to make childcare cheaper and this will start in July 2023. To work out your position under the reforms before then check out the KindiCare Election Calculator.

Read our exclusive interview with Labor’s incoming Minister for Early Childhood Education and Youth Amanda Rishworth to learn more about the changes planned.