26 OctBudget Summary for Early Childhood Education and Care

Posted on 26 Oct 2022

The Australian Treasurer released the Federal Budget on 25 October,2022. The budget reflected support for working parents, but it falls short of resourcing a key driver of workforce participation – supporting educators to deliver affordable, high quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). 

“We welcome the increased subsidy that will support more children to access early childhood education. However, we are concerned in the absence of significant investment in the ECEC workforce including initiatives to retain current staff, early childhood services will not be able to expand to provide the additional early childhood education and care,” said Early Learning Association Australia’s (ELAA) Acting CEO, Megan O’Connell.  

Here is a summary of budget initiatives relevant to ECEC: 

  • increase the maximum Child Care Subsidy (CCS) rate from 85 per cent to 90 per cent for families earning up to $80,000, with families earning over $80,000 given a CCS rate that tapers down by one percentage point for each additional $5,000 of family income until it reaches zero per cent for families earning $530,000.   
  • $33.7 million over four years from 2022–23 to introduce a base entitlement of 36 hours per fortnight of subsidised ECEC for families with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, regardless of activity hours or income level  
  • $10.2 million over three years from 2022–23 to establish the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy Partnership with a Coalition of Peaks partners and First Nations representatives to develop policies on First Nations early childhood education and care 
  • $485.5m for new places in higher education including 1,469 for early education teachers. This is on top of delivering 180,000 fee-free TAFE and vocational education places, with extra support for participation of women and other disadvantaged groups    
  • the Department of Education will receive funding of $47.7 million over four years from 2022–23 to support a range of activities that aim to reduce fraud and non-compliance, such as helping ECEC providers to better understand their regulatory obligations 
  • the Australian Competition and Consumer Commision will undertake a 12-month inquiry into the cost of child care, alongside the Productivity Commission’s review of the child care sector  
  • an extension of paid parental leave incrementally from 18 to 26 weeks by 2026 
  • $9.5 million over two years from 2022–23 to communicate the changes to the CCS system to families and child care providers. 

To review the budget documents, please CLICK HERE.  

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