Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the government\u2019s Cheaper Childcare Bill, introduced to parliament today, doesn\u2019t go far enough, and should make early education and care universal and free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Faruqi said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have an opportunity here to deliver universal and free childcare. This bill does not go anywhere near far enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cExpensive and inaccessible childcare has held women and families back for too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRather than spending $243 billion on the obscene Stage 3 Tax Cuts, we could have free childcare for a fraction of the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaking early childhood education and care free for all would be so beneficial for children, families and the whole community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis bill does not tackle the workforce crisis in early education. Educators must receive better pay and conditions that reflect the skill and responsibility of the work they do every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt the very least, the bill should scrap the Activity Test that restricts access to subsidised childcare, and the new subsidy rates should be brought forward to commence at the start of next year rather than waiting until July. People need support now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the government\u2019s Cheaper Childcare Bill, introduced to parliament today, doesn\u2019t go far enough, and should make early education and care universal and free. Senator Faruqi said: \u201cWe have an opportunity here to deliver universal and free childcare. This bill does not go … Continue reading “Childcare changes should be strengthened and brought forward”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18383,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18382\/revisions\/18383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}