Interview - TODAY Show

SYLVIA JEFFREYS: Australia is moving closer to universal childcare this morning with the Government releasing plans to scrap the activity test and provide guaranteed childcare subsidies three days a week for Australian families.

For more on this we're joined by the Minister for Education Jason Clare from Sydney. Minister, good morning to you. How many families will benefit from these changes?

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Good morning, Sylvia. Well at least 66,000 families who are cut out of the system at the moment, and we think many more.

What this is about is making sure that every child in Australia who needs it gets access to three days of government supported early education every week. Really, it's about making sure that every child in Australia gets the best possible start in life.

We know that if a child goes to early education then they're more likely to start school ready to learn. We also know that they're more likely to end up finishing high school. So this is about making sure that we build a better and a fairer early education system.

At the moment, I think we'd all agree, Sylvia, that every child has a right to go to school and that the government has a responsibility to make that happen and fund it, support that. This is the next step.

This is about every child having a right to early education so that they get the tools and skills they need so they're ready to start school ready to learn. And the government has a responsibility here, too. So that's what this reform's about.

JEFFREYS: Yes, scrapping the activity test does remove a really unnecessary barrier for a lot of families around the country, but this will also apply to families now earning up to $530,000 a year. Some will argue that a family earning half a million dollars doesn't need a discount on childcare. What do you say to that?

CLARE: That's already the case. So, the Child Care Subsidy applies to all families with a combined income up to that point.

What we're saying here is that there's some families, some very, very poor families where parents might not be working where the child, through no fault of their own, can't get access to that subsidy even though parents on higher incomes can, and they're sometimes the children that don't see a book until they start kindergarten. They're the children who inevitably start school behind of the rest of the class.

And so by making this change we're going to help to make sure that every child gets the skills that they need to start school ready to learn. That doesn't happen at the moment. This change will help there.

JEFFREYS: It is effectively an election promise, it won't happen unless you're re elected at the next election. Why couldn't it happen sooner? Why can't it be a top priority, you know, top of the order when you return to Parliament in the New Year?

CLARE: Yeah, we've got to pass legislation to do it. There's a piece of work that has to happen to get that ready. And if we do win the election we'll pass that legislation and then it will come into place on 1 January 2026.

I think the fundamental point to make here, Sylvia, is that there are a lot of things that we need to do to make our early education system better and fairer.

We've cut the cost of childcare for more than a million Australian families. There are about 100,000 children that are in childcare today that weren't there two years ago when we came to office.

We need more early educators as well and that 15 per cent pay rise that rolls out this month is going to help with that.

But there's a lot more that we need to do and that's what the Prime Minister will talk about today.

JEFFREYS: Well on that point, I mean you're guaranteeing subsidies for three days a week, but can you guarantee that these families will even be able to secure a spot when there are so many huge wait lists around the country?

CLARE: Yeah, there's wait lists and there's other parts of country where you can't find a centre as well, and I don't want to pre empt what the Prime Minister's going to say today but he'll talk about that this afternoon in Brisbane as well.

JEFFREYS: All right. Minister, before we let you go I'd like just to ask you on the Prime Minister, he's been under fire this week over his response to the Melbourne synagogue attack, of course, it's been dominating headlines this week. There's been another attack in Sydney's east this morning. Are you worried the PM has fractured the Government's relationship with the Jewish community?

CLARE: Remember what happened in Melbourne last week, a synagogue was torched in an act of terrorism. Anyone affected by that I think would be angry and would be upset. If your place of worship was burnt to the ground, you would feel that way as well.

I think there's three things that need to happen here. We need to catch the perpetrators of this evil act. We need to make sure that we protect the community, protect places of worship. These places are sacred and should be sacrosanct. And we need to rebuild the synagogue, and we need to rebuild community harmony in this country which has been stressed and pulled apart at the edges by the conflict in the Middle East.

This is what the Prime Minister is fundamentally doing by establishing that police task force, but also by providing millions of dollars in extra funding support to protect synagogues and other Jewish buildings like Jewish schools.

JEFFREYS: All right, we've got to leave it there, unfortunately. Education Minister Jason Clare, we appreciate your time, thank you.