THRIVE BY FIVE URGES ACTION AFTER WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EQUALITY TASKFORCE FINAL REPORT CONFIRMS NEED FOR EARLY LEARNING AND PAID PARENTAL LEAVE REFORM
23 October 2023 – Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive by Five’s ongoing advocacy for a universally accessible and affordable, high-quality early learning system and greater parental leave has been supported by the Women’s Economic Equality final report released today.
The final report has outlined vital recommendations aimed at boosting women’s economic workforce participation, including:
- Legislating to establish and fund a universal, high-quality early childhood education and care system
- Extending the paid parental leave scheme to 52 weeks and boosting the replacement wage
- Abolishing the Childcare Subsidy Activity Test
- Supporting FairWork applications that seek to improve wages for educators [1]
Minderoo Foundation’s Jay Weatherill said the Federal Government must strongly consider implementing universally accessible, affordable and high-quality early learning and increasing paid parental leave entitlements as a matter of priority.
“You can’t achieve the equality needed for Australian women without addressing reform of early childhood education and care and by providing greater support in the years after children are born,” Mr Weatherill said.
“Early learning and paid parental leave support are good for women’s equality, good for the development of children, good for families and mean parents have more options when they consider returning to the paid workforce. It’s also vital for business during the current labour shortage and can positively impact our economy.
“Australian women are some of the best-educated in the world, yet this report outlines how lack of accessible and affordable early learning is a major barrier to women fully participating in the workforce.
“We must ensure that our paid parental leave policies are sufficient so that primary carers, who are predominantly mothers, do not lose connection with their workplaces and have an easier time re-joining the workforce.
“The taskforce also joins a list of growing reviews and reports delivered to the government, including the ACCC’s childcare inquiry report, the Employment White Paper and the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee in advocating for the abolition of the Childcare Activity Test.
“Abolishing the Activity Test would in particular benefit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, low-income families and families from linguistically and culturally diverse communities.
“As the taskforce rightfully recognises, many current Government policies are holding women back and this must change.
“This report outlines a path forward for the Federal Government to ensure that meaningful steps are taken towards boosting women’s economic workforce participation in Australia.
“We strongly urge the Federal Government to implement recommendations laid out in the report.”
