Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christinamiot.
Speaker 1: It's Thursday, December twelfth. Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi pledged eight
Speaker 1: point five million dollars to find the redevelopment of Sydney's
Speaker 1: Jewish Museum after a second anti semitic attack was carried
Speaker 1: out in the city's east on Tuesday night. New South
Speaker 1: Wales Premier Chris Min's blasted suggestions the Wallara incident didn't
Speaker 1: amount to antisemitism.
Speaker 2: This is not simply just an act of vandalism on
Speaker 2: the streets of Sydney. We need to call it out
Speaker 2: for what it is. It is anti Semitic and it
Speaker 2: needs to be met with a full response from New
Speaker 2: South Wales Police in the New South Wales government.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, leaders of Melbourne's Jewish community have called on governments
Speaker 1: at all levels to address the surge in anti Semitic
Speaker 1: incidents after a synagogue was firebombed and a local member's
Speaker 1: electorate office was vandalized. All our reporting and analysis of
Speaker 1: this ongoing issue is live right now at the Australian
Speaker 1: dot Com dot AU. It's been days of chaos for
Speaker 1: the government, but that didn't stop the PM from spooking
Speaker 1: Labour's big childcare plans on Wednesday. So is it a
Speaker 1: sweet enough deal to get voters back on board before
Speaker 1: the next election. That's today's episode. It was an announcement
Speaker 1: befitting an election campaign.
Speaker 3: There are more than one million reasons to invest in
Speaker 3: early education, some of whom are here with us here today,
Speaker 3: one of them riding a dinosaur down there.
Speaker 1: Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi, surrounded by a crowd of early
Speaker 1: childhood educators, parents and cute toddlers and babies, unveiled the
Speaker 1: Labor Party's plan to overhaul the childcare sector.
Speaker 3: Today I announced our government is establishing a one billion
Speaker 3: dollar building early Education fund. This is the single biggest
Speaker 3: investment by an Australian government ever in new child care services.
Speaker 1: It came at a crucial moment for the government. The
Speaker 1: PM has been under pressure for days to take more
Speaker 1: decisive action on rising anti semitism.
Speaker 4: The fact is there's never going to be the perfect day.
Speaker 4: This is how I think Albanezi looked at this.
Speaker 1: Sarah Eisen is a political reporter with The Australian.
Speaker 4: So I think he was very clear that this was
Speaker 4: the week he was going to do it. I also
Speaker 4: think he wanted to do it because they're also cognizant
Speaker 4: of the coalition's nuclear energy costings, because they want that
Speaker 4: day where the Coalition release their nuclear energy costing, which
Speaker 4: is any day now free for the Labor to attack
Speaker 4: and criticize that. It feels very much like an election,
Speaker 4: and we're very close to one, could be within a
Speaker 4: couple months of the earliest, could be by May.
Speaker 1: The PM pledged on Wednesday to scrap an activity test
Speaker 1: that requires parents and careers to work or study if
Speaker 1: they want to access childcare benefits. Labour will also give
Speaker 1: families earning a combined annual income of less than five
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty thousand dollars access to three days per
Speaker 1: week of government subsidized childcare if it wins the next election,
Speaker 1: and the government says it'll build more than one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty childcare centers in cities and regions where they're
Speaker 1: needed most, as well as drawing thousands of new workers
Speaker 1: into the sector, with taxpayers footing the bill.
Speaker 3: Now, the coming budget update will show common more funding
Speaker 3: for childcare subsidies is increasing by three point one billion
Speaker 3: dollars over the next four years to support an extra
Speaker 3: two hundred thousand children to receive earlier educash. Alongside this,
Speaker 3: thirty four thousand and more early educators have joined the
Speaker 3: workforce thirty four thousand. There are another one hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty five thousand in training, including in Free Day right
Speaker 3: across the nation.
Speaker 1: Now bear with me here while we do a bit
Speaker 1: of maths. Modeling released by the Productivity Commission in September,
Speaker 1: that's the government's independent research and advisory body suggested the
Speaker 1: cost of ditching the current activity test for five days
Speaker 1: a week would cost about two billion dollars a year.
Speaker 1: On top of that, removal of the activity test could
Speaker 1: threaten productivity if parents and carers are no longer paying
Speaker 1: income tax. So how is labor getting away with it
Speaker 1: so cheaply?
Speaker 4: The governments saying that the Productivity Commission's costings and their
Speaker 4: costings are very different. They're saying the Productivity Commission's using
Speaker 4: data from twenty nineteen twenty twenty.
Speaker 5: And they are using much more up to day start off.
Speaker 4: They're not saying it's a huge difference in policy or
Speaker 4: that we've managed to do it cheaply. For this reason,
Speaker 4: they're looking at it as a calculation difference rather than
Speaker 4: a substantive policy difference.
Speaker 2: Is there a.
Speaker 1: World in which this isn't about money or politics at all? Like,
Speaker 1: is this just the right thing to do for Australian
Speaker 1: families and for Australian kids from an.
Speaker 4: Education perspective, If we zoom out back past the Middle
Speaker 4: East conflict, back before we were around the corner from
Speaker 4: an election. The call for particularly the activity test to
Speaker 4: be scrapped has been going on literally for years, for
Speaker 4: so many years, and the government's owned Women Economic Equality
Speaker 4: Task Force, not the last budget, but the budget before
Speaker 4: that recommended the activity test to be scrapped. So outside
Speaker 4: of the money, outside of the election and psycho outside
Speaker 4: of everything political, this is a long time coming for Labor,
Speaker 4: particularly for a government that sees universal childcare as the
Speaker 4: end game. For that to be achieved, you need to
Speaker 4: be taking these incremental steps regarding the activity test as
Speaker 4: a starting point, addressing the childcare desert, looking at boosting
Speaker 4: wages for workforce and so on. So this is a
Speaker 4: critical piece of the puzzle that is regarding Labour's.
Speaker 5: Long term vision beyond the typical.
Speaker 4: Day to day politics and the desire to get some
Speaker 4: really good stuff out before an election.
Speaker 1: Labor made moves in the childcare space.
Speaker 6: Back in August, Australia's two hundred thousand childcare workers will
Speaker 6: receive a fifteen percent pay rise funded by federal taxpayers.
Speaker 6: A mid concerns it risks further fueling inflation. The Prime
Speaker 6: Minister says the wage increase is conditional on childcare fees
Speaker 6: being capped.
Speaker 1: At the time, Opposition leader Peter Dutton criticized the move
Speaker 1: as a one off sugar hit.
Speaker 4: The government has to explain whether or not these workers
Speaker 4: are going to get this pay ongoing, or whether they
Speaker 4: will get a paid cut after the election. The sector
Speaker 4: a lot of people, the parenthood, nonproprofit sector, a lot
Speaker 4: of those sorts of bodies have called for the Opposition
Speaker 4: to match what Labour's announced. The Opposition isn't going to
Speaker 4: do that. The Opposition is saying that the activity test
Speaker 4: already has exemptions you can apply for if you're from
Speaker 4: a disadvantaged background. It's also saying that it's going to
Speaker 4: unnecessarily and unsustainably fuel demand, which is not at all
Speaker 4: okay in a cost of living crisis. So they're talking
Speaker 4: about a smoke and mirror's moment. A moment that isn't
Speaker 4: actually going to help Australian families.
Speaker 1: Coming up. What Labour can learn about childcare from our
Speaker 1: friends across the Pacific. When Anthony Albanesi unveiled the government's
Speaker 1: multi billion dollar childcare scheme on Wednesday, he likened it
Speaker 1: to another Labor Party invention friends.
Speaker 3: A Labor government created universal Mediccare because we believe that
Speaker 3: every Australian has the right to quality, affordable healthcare.
Speaker 1: That was in nineteen eighty four and former Prime Minister
Speaker 1: Bob Hawke played a starring role in the marketing material
Speaker 1: for the scheme.
Speaker 3: Then every Australian from Newborn Bay the Prime Minister can
Speaker 3: share in the cheapest, simplest and fairest health insurance scheme
Speaker 3: Australia's ever had.
Speaker 1: Now Elbow's gunning for the same success with early childhood education.
Speaker 3: And that's why we want to build a universal childcare system, simple,
Speaker 3: affordable and accessible for every family.
Speaker 1: There are lessons to be learned not from Medicare, but
Speaker 1: from Canada, where a nationwide early Learning and childcare plan
Speaker 1: was introduced in twenty twenty one. That scheme pumped more
Speaker 1: than thirty billion dollars of federal funds into the system
Speaker 1: in a bid to make childcare available to all families
Speaker 1: for an average of ten dollars per day.
Speaker 7: If you're a parent, you deserve affordable childcare. You need
Speaker 7: affordable early learning and childcare. That's why a re elected
Speaker 7: Liberal government will continue to support Canadian families by fighting
Speaker 7: for ten dollars a day childcare right across the country.
Speaker 1: The thinking was from an economic perspective that the Canadian
Speaker 1: government would break even. Childcare that's flexible, affordable and accessible
Speaker 1: enables parents to rejoin or contribute more to the workforce
Speaker 1: and boost productivity. But three years on, the scheme is
Speaker 1: on shaky ground, with most provinces struggling to meet their
Speaker 1: targets for new daycare spaces by the twenty twenty six deadline.
Speaker 1: Financial pressures have caused some centers to close or pull
Speaker 1: out of the scheme, sending fees in the opposite direction.
Speaker 1: Childcare workers and early childhood educators are leaving the sector
Speaker 1: in droves, with many saying they're underpaid and underappreciated, and
Speaker 1: waiting lists have blown out all over the country, meaning
Speaker 1: kids from low income and poor families could miss out altogether.
Speaker 1: So could the same thing happen in Australia. Here's Sarah Eisen.
Speaker 4: Labour's feeling confident, particularly because they have a plan in
Speaker 4: place regarding workforce that rests quite heavily on two things,
Speaker 4: which is WAYGE rises that have been pumping through for
Speaker 4: some time now, the Good Start Early Learning WAYGE rise
Speaker 4: of ten percent just this month. And also migration settings.
Speaker 4: Plenty of really clear migration pathways for people to work
Speaker 4: in the sector. So while demand might be really high,
Speaker 4: they're hopeful that by investing directly and even owning centers,
Speaker 4: coupled with getting people to actually work in the industry
Speaker 4: will mean that they can meet this demand.
Speaker 5: It's ambitious, it's a gamble.
Speaker 4: Is it a risk, Absolutely, but it's one that Labor
Speaker 4: reckons it can figure out.
Speaker 1: Albanize said on Wednesday that Labour's pledged to make childcare
Speaker 1: cheaper was the single biggest policy commitment the party made
Speaker 1: in the run up to the last election.
Speaker 3: In our first term, we're brought down the cost of
Speaker 3: childcare for over one million families and we're boosting the
Speaker 3: wages of up to two hundred thousand early educators by
Speaker 3: that fifteen percent.
Speaker 1: Labour's popularity has plummeted in recent months as voters struggle
Speaker 1: under a cost of living crisis. So the question now
Speaker 1: becomes will it win votes when Australians go to the
Speaker 1: polls in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4: Look, I think it might be a big part of
Speaker 4: where some young families put their vote, only because the
Speaker 4: Coalition doesn't currently have an alternative vision in that particular space.
Speaker 4: And now this isn't just about the latest announcement we've
Speaker 4: got this week. This is also about the nearly five
Speaker 4: billion pumped in the first budget that gave families up
Speaker 4: to ninety percent of a subsidy for those on the
Speaker 4: really low income spectrum eight thousand or less, and it
Speaker 4: covered families up to five hundred and thirty thousand dollars
Speaker 4: for a household income. So Labour's saying, this is everything
Speaker 4: we're doing for mums and dads and we are the
Speaker 4: ones who've got a vision for you.
Speaker 5: I think that's compelling. However, at the same time.
Speaker 4: Even though Labor's put in all of these different things,
Speaker 4: the costs of childcare has been going up.
Speaker 5: It's been eating away.
Speaker 4: At all the benefits Labors delivered, so people aren't really
Speaker 4: feeling this in their back pocket, so it might not
Speaker 4: be that committing an argument either. It's really up to
Speaker 4: what is going on family to family, but I don't
Speaker 4: think it won't sway anyone. I think there's a chance
Speaker 4: of getting a few votes, the question is how many.
Speaker 1: Sarah Eison is a political reporter with The Australian. You
Speaker 1: can read that story, as well as all the nation's
Speaker 1: best news, sport and politics, right now at the Australian
Speaker 1: dot com dot au