Thrive by Five welcomes Queensland Premier’s push for National Women’s Summit as fantastic early learning opportunity
The Thrive by Five campaign says a National Women’s Summit via the National Cabinet would be a once in a generation opportunity to push for reform of Australia’s early learning and childcare sector.
Thrive by Five CEO Jay Weatherill welcomed the opportunity and said overhauling Australia’s outdated childcare funding arrangements would create lifelong economic advantages for women and empower the next generation of female leaders.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today called for the National Women’s Summit and will be adding it to the National Cabinet agenda on Friday.
“If a National Women’s Summit via the National Cabinet pushes for genuine early learning reform it will return a triple dividend of gender equality, economic and social benefits,” Mr Weatherill said.
“One of the most effective ways of increasing the capacity of women to engage in paid work, be independent and fully engaged in our community is to provide universal access to high-quality, affordable early learning and childcare.
“Many women drop out of the workforce because of the crippling cost of early learning and childcare. By addressing this issue, the taxpayer can avoid billions of dollars in late intervention costs to our economy, while allowing all children to thrive no matter their postcode.
“We congratulate the Premier on recognising this as a priority. Reform of early learning means more economic security and prosperity for Australian women and families.”
Making early learning and childcare more affordable would boost the economy by an estimated $11 billion annually and deliver $150,000 in higher lifetime earnings for the average Australian working mother.
Premier Palaszczuk’s call comes after an alliance of organisations and prominent Australian women, including Minderoo Foundation Co-Chair Nicola Forrest AO, signed an open letter to the Prime Minister asking for the May Federal Budget to make the lives of women easier and prioritise reform of the early learning sector.
