Many new mums getting back into the workforce take shifts where they can get them.
Three-day guarantee a ‘huge step’ in universal early education target
- Op-Eds
- 3 minute read
The Albanese Labor Government believes every Australian child should have access to quality early education and care.
Today marks a huge step towards making that a reality, with Labor’s three-day guarantee coming into effect.
The Coalition’s punitive Activity Test for families has meant that too often, children who would benefit most from early learning have been shut out from the system.
They were shut out because of their parents’ work or study activity levels. That’s just not fair.
And it is not how modern families live. The rules simply didn’t fit the reality of casual or insecure work.
But when parents dropped a shift from one week to the next, that could be the difference between their child accessing early learning or being shut out.
Routine and connection really matter for young children. They need stability and regularity to connect with their educator, and for their educator to connect with them.
Consistency and connection support children to develop socially and emotionally.
With the three-day guarantee now in place, every child who needs it is eligible for three days of subsidised early learning each week – providing stability and connection.
Every child – no matter what their parents do.
Just like all children can go to school – no matter what their parents do.
We know 100,000 families will be entitled to more hours of subsidised care because of the three-day guarantee. These families are now eligible for three days a week of subsidised early learning. The majority are from low-income families.
Families earning between $50,000 to $100,000 who will be better off under the three-day guarantee are expected to save on average $1460 per year.
We also know thousands of families were locked out of early learning because of the Activity Test and never engaged in the system because they couldn’t afford it.
The doors to early learning are now open to these families thanks to our 3 Day Guarantee.
By opening the doors to early learning, we are opening the doors to a world of opportunity through structured play-based learning, that we know makes a difference.
I have the privilege of witnessing the benefits of good quality early learning first-hand when I visit centres across the country.
I see children who love to learn. They love to listen to their educators reading to them, to solve puzzles, to count dinosaurs in the sandpit.
I see children learning how to interact with others – to share, to be kind, and to say sorry.
I see children who are getting the skills they need to be amazing citizens when they grow up – whether they become electricians or marine biologists or CEOs or doctors. Or even early educators.
The fact is that 90 per cent of brain development occurs in the first five years of life.
The early years of a child’s life really matter.
There’s more to do, and we’re doing it.
That includes the rollout of Labor’s $1 billion Building Early Education Fund, delivering more centres for more families in more places.
That fund has a particular focus on outer suburbs and regions, where we know there’s demand for greater access to early learning.
Because just like your parents’ jobs shouldn’t affect whether you have access to early learning, where you live shouldn’t be a barrier either.
Parents, especially mothers, rely on the early learning system to return to the workforce.
We want the children of Cessnock or the Loddon Shire to get access to the same benefits of quality early learning that young children in Sydney or Melbourne do.
And of course, in 2025, the Albanese Labor Government took urgent action to strengthen this vital sector.
We delivered $226 million to strengthen the early learning workforce, rules in centres, and regulation.
All up, this amounted to the biggest child safety reforms in this sector since the national early learning system was introduced 15 years ago.
On top of that, the final part of our 15 per cent pay rise for early educators hit pay packets just last month. And that pay rise is already stabilising this important workforce.
We need the early learning system to be strong, because so many families rely on it.
They rely on it to help children prepare for school and to give them the best possible start in life. They also rely on it to help parents, especially mothers, return to the workforce when they’re ready.
Universal early education and care is ambitious reform. It is visionary.
And it’s the sort of change that only a Labor Government delivers.
We are building a future for Australians where one day, access to quality early learning won’t be determined by whether you live in Devonport or Double Bay.
Whether your parents are lawyers or struggling to find work, you’ll still get the same access to quality early learning as everyone else.
This op-ed was originally published in The Australian on 5 January 2026
This year, we will see a huge shift in the way government understands and respects early learning. Instead of closing off access based on what parents do, we are opening it up based on what children need.