00:00The election campaign hasn't begun, but it's never too early to hold a baby.
00:07The election pitch, though, is well underway.
00:11This is the single biggest investment by an Australian government ever in new childcare services.
00:19Labor pledging a billion dollar fund to build or expand 160 early education centres.
00:25That will bring the opportunity of early education to regions and suburbs that have been forgotten for too long.
00:32The fund will aim to build more centres on the sites of existing schools and include maternal and child health facilities.
00:39The promises didn't stop there.
00:41Under a re-elected Labor government, every family earning up to $530,000 will have access to the childcare subsidy for three days a week. Guaranteed.
00:52Currently, families earning more than $83,000 a week only start getting a childcare subsidy if they meet the activity test.
00:59That's four hours of work or study each week.
01:02The more days the parent works or studies, the more hours of subsidised childcare they receive.
01:08But Labor says it will wind back the activity test from 2026.
01:13What the activity test has done is locked out as many as 126,000 children from participating in early childhood education and care.
01:23Labor says under the plan, 33,000 families with an income of up to $100,000 will be better off, while it will benefit another 27,000 families who earn between $100,000 and $300,000 a year.
01:36We need more supply. All this is going to do is make it more difficult to access childcare.
01:42Childcare will be a key part of Anthony Albanese's plan to be re-elected next year, with more to come on the issue.
01:48He wants a universal childcare system and will be hoping the extra money in parents' pockets will make a difference in a cost-of-living election.
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