Step by step reform: Comparing ALP 2022 and 2025 ECEC election pledges

In the wake of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) releasing its early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy commitments for the upcoming 2025 Federal Election, The Sector thought it would be useful to frame the recent announcements in contrast to the pledges the party brought to its successful 2022 campaign.

Federal Election 2022: core ALP ECEC pledges

Affordability – The party’s “Plan for Cheaper Childcare” included two proposed additional changes to the CCS; a significant increase in the household taxable income eligibility cap to $530,000 and an increase of the maximum CCS subsidy percentage available to 90 per cent – Delivered as part of Cheaper Childcare Bill.

Pricing – As part of its Plan for Cheaper Childcare the ALP committed to requesting the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to design a price regulation mechanism that would “drive out of pocket costs down for good.”

Looking at the present day, this has been delivered in part by fee cap embedded in Worker Retention Payment.

Transparency – The ALP committed to improve “transparency” in the ECEC sector, seeking to force large providers to publicly report revenue and profit, provide real time fee data and quality ratings to families, and ban non-educational enrolment inducements.

At time of press this has been delivered as part of the Cheaper Childcare Bill.

Workforce – The ALP was vocal about its commitment to an Early Learning Strategy but fell short of announcing any direct policies to address current workforce shortages in the sector in the relevant election cycle.

We now know that this has been delivered and addressed through the Worker Retention Payment mechanism.

Federal Election 2025 ALP ECEC pledges

In yesterday’s announcement the Prime Minister committed to three key aspects, namely:

Accessibility – From January 2026 the parents of children attending early learning for up to three days a week will not be required to meet the activity test in order to qualify for the Child Care Subsidy.

Availability – From 2025 grants will be made available from a $1 billion fund to providers as an incentive to build and expand services in areas of need, including in the outer suburbs and regional Australia.

Future reform – The ALP committed to developing an Early Education Service Delivery Price in order to better understand the cost of delivering ECEC services across Australia and “underpin future reform.”

Commentary

As the ALP approaches the end of its first ministry since 2013 and prepares to contest its second, the policy mixes brought to each election are markedly different, with the first set focusing more squarely on affordability and workforce and the second on accessibility and availability.

This evolution makes sense given the Government had more or less delivered on its 2022 election pledges and the system is not yet structurally set up to manage more ambitious reforms such as a switch to supply side policy frameworks via fixed price child care for all.

By focussing on accessibility and availability the Government is able to keep its reform agenda alive, at a reasonable cost, whilst buying time to explore what is required to make the big step towards a full reset of the ECEC system away from demand side subsidy model towards a supply side model.