There is an overdue need for Australia to implement universal early childhood education and care to support struggling parents and invest in the nation’s future leaders, CEO of the Parenthood Jessica Rudd told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
The lawyer, writer, entrepreneur and business leader praised the Albanese Labor Government’s flagship campaign and subsequent efforts towards giving the nation universal early childhood care.
Nevertheless, with inflation fueling a cost-of-living crisis and working parents struggling to afford childcare, Rudd says we needed this reform “yesterday” as she urged policymakers to move faster.
Even with her up-close understanding of the complex workings of politics (her father is former PM Kevin Rudd), Rudd said “the empathy I have for policymakers is trumped by the empathy I have for parents every single day.”
A recent poll by The Parenthood found that 85 per cent of two-parent households needed two incomes to make ends meet. This doesn’t leave much room for rising childcare costs for parents of young children,an issue exacerbated in rural and remote areas as 80 per cent of these families live in childcare deserts. And it also highlights the further challenges single-parent households face.
Rudd noted that it is overwhelmingly women who take on the caring responsibilities at home when childcare costs become too high to work into the family budget. Out of all the women in Australia aged 25-40 with young children, just 56 per cent are participating in the workforce.
Australia ranks 70th for women’s economic participation worldwide, and Rudd said that even the women who are working have to turn down career promotions because they don’t have access to care. These gender barriers are costing the Australian economy $128 billion.
While the government has invested $5.4 billion to increase childcare subsidies, Rudd said much of this money is being swallowed by price-gouging childcare providers.
“Families cannot wait any longer for the private sector to deliver what the public must,” she said.
“Parents regardless of political alignment, universally support reform in early childhood education.”
Another piece to the puzzle, said Rudd, is the extremely low pay grade that childcare workers receive, despite having carried our economy through the pandemic and showing up for kids day every day.
Many once passionate childcare educators are having to leave the sector due to low pay and Australia can’t afford to lose them, said Rudd.
Emphasising the clear need for universal early childhood education, Rudd noted that the Productivity Commission identified the crisis in the childcare and education sector as “the most urgent reform needed.”
She also said that global economists praise the reform “as the most successful anti-inflation policies in history”, making the government’s goal of universal, affordable childcare and education “worth fighting for”.