INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: THE SIMPLE CHANGE THAT WOULD HELP 40,000 AUSTRALIAN WOMEN INCREASE THEIR EARNINGS
8 March 2024 – Abolishing the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test would allow 39,620 [1] women to get back to work or increase their hours, campaigners have said, as the focus on women’s earnings intensifies on International Women’s Day.
The Activity Test determines the subsidy parents get from the Federal Government for childcare based on the number of hours they spend working, volunteering or doing other approved activities.
Jay Weatherill, from Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive by Five campaign, said the test should be scrapped in the upcoming budget as it was not enabling women’s workforce participation as intended.
“The childcare subsidy Activity Test is not advancing gender equality, it is holding it back,” Mr Weatherill said.
“This is a piece of policy that is particularly hurting women on low incomes, single mothers and casual workers.
“These mothers are stuck with a catch 22 – they can’t get more subsidised childcare because they don’t work enough hours, but they can’t work more hours because they need the certainty of subsidised childcare.”
The Productivity Commission, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce have all recommended the test be amended or abolished.
A 2023 report by Impact Economics and Thrive by Five found $4.5billion could be added to Australia’s GDP by scrapping the test and allowing more women to enter the workforce.
“The Activity Test is not working for families, it’s not working for women, and it’s not working for the economy,” Mr Weatherill said.
“We hear from nurses, teachers and other essential workers with young kids who want to go back to work – and their workplaces are pleading with them to come back – but they can’t because when they weigh up their earnings versus the cost of childcare, it’s just not worth it.”
Mr Weatherill said Thrive by Five welcomed the introduction of superannuation on paid parental leave, announced by the Federal Government yesterday.
“Superannuation on paid parental leave is a fantastic step for gender equality, as is the Federal Government’s new Gender Equality Strategy.”
One of the key outcomes the strategy is designed to bring about is “affordable and high quality early childhood education and care”.
“One simple way to make the aims of this strategy reality would be to abolish the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test in the next budget, giving low-income women and single mothers a fair chance to earn a living,” Mr Weatherill said.
Thrive by Five is also looking to the Government to fund a 25 per cent wage rise for workers in early childhood education, 92 per cent of whom are female.
“Early childhood educators are currently paid as little as $23 an hour, despite most having tertiary qualifications and despite many male-dominated industries, which require fewer or no qualifications, paying better.
“We are calling on the Federal Government to fund a much-overdue pay rise, because this is really about saying we value women’s work as much as men’s.”
[1] The Activity Test causing Women and Children to Miss Out: Report
Media Contact: Iona Salter, 0413 185 634
