15th Jun 2021, 4:40 PM – Senate Motions - Child Care - Adopt Labor's Cheaper Child Care Plan

The majority voted against a motion introduced by ACT Senator Katy Gallagher (Labor), which means it failed.

The voting data attached to this division is currently - as of 17 June 2021 - wrong. It is a replication of the later division on gender dysphoria. See the Journal of the Senate (435 KB) for the correct voting data. Australian Hansard has been informed of this error. Please do not attach this division to any relavant policy until the voting data has been corrected as it will skew the voting record.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) expresses its support for public funding for early childhood education and care (ECEC), recognising that it helps increase the participation of parents in the workforce, especially women, thereby boosting Australia's economy, and contributes to the physical, intellectual, social and emotional development of children;

(b) notes that public funding for ECEC has been described by certain Government members and senators as a 'money pit', 'communism' and 'the hand of government reaching in and taking away our children's youth';

(c) recognises that the Government's child care policy:

(i) does not start until July 2022,

(ii) provides no additional benefit to families with only one child,

(iii) rips away increased subsidy support for families with two children in care when the oldest child goes to school,

(iv) creates confusion for many families as to whether they will be eligible for any support, and if so how much and for how long, and

(v) has missed the opportunity to boost Australia's economy by increasing women's workforce participation; and

(d) calls on the Federal Government to adopt Labor's Cheaper Child Care Plan, which will benefit four times as many families as the Government's plan.