COALITION’S NEW PITCH TO WOMEN VOTERS MUST NOT OVERLOOK CHILDCARE
17 June 2024 – New Coalition policies to win over women voters by encouraging entrepreneurship and financial literacy must be accompanied by solid commitments to tackle the availability and affordability of child care.
Liberal Senator Jane Hume will tonight announce that the Liberal-National Coalition is investigating policies to encourage female entrepreneurship and financial literacy, ahead of the next Federal election [1].
Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive by Five campaign welcomed the announcement and called on the Opposition to commit to making early childhood education and care more accessible and affordable as a vital step to help bolster women’s economic security.
Minderoo’s Jay Weatherill said inaccessible and unaffordable early learning was a major barrier that prevented women across Australia from actively participating in the workforce.
“It has long been clear that high early learning costs prevent far too many women from re-entering the workforce or starting and growing their own businesses,” Mr Weatherill said.
“The Opposition’s commitment to helping women thrive economically must include making early learning more accessible and affordable as its cornerstone.
“Senator Hume has rightfully highlighted that progress in lifting the number of female entrepreneurs in Australia has been slow and that achieving true gender equality in the country will take more work.
“We welcome the Coalition’s desire to prioritise women’s economic independence and security as a key policy and strongly encourage them to commit to making early learning and care more accessible and affordable as an obvious first step in achieving this ambitious goal.
“Economists widely agree that making access to early learning more accessible and affordable will help boost women’s workforce participation.
“A recent report published by Impact Economics and Policy highlighted that making childcare more accessible through abolishing the punitive childcare subsidy activity test would help more than 34,000 women, mostly from low-income families, to re-enter the workforce [2].
“Tens of thousands of women could become more financially independent through just one policy measure that would make early learning more affordable.
“We strongly encourage the Federal Opposition to commit to policies that help make early learning more accessible and affordable ahead of the next federal election,” Mr Weatherill said.
[1] Coalition seeks to woo aspirational women – The Australian
