Tens of thousands of workers will soon be targeted for jobs in childcare centres across the country but could be earning more at McDonalds or Bunnings.
Danielle Wood from the Grattan Institute said Australians should be shocked by salaries in early education.
Ms Wood said lifting the wages of childcare workers needed to be a key priority of the government in its push to make early childhood education more accessible.
“The fact trained workers doing this critical and emotionally challenging work are getting little more than those flipping burgers at McDonald’s or manning the counters a Bunnings, should shock us,” she said.
Speaking at the National Press Club, Ms Wood said Australia would not meet its full potential until it made better use of highly skilled women.
She also said reforming the childcare activity test, which significantly restricts access to subsidised care for some families, must be high on the agenda.
The government’s women’s economic equality task force recommended the activity test be scrapped.
Advocates are hopeful the government can be persuaded to abolish it before the budget is handed down.
Labor has committed $55 billion over the next four years to make child care more affordable for 1.2 million families.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said cheaper child care was key to addressing the cost of living.
“What we’ve tried to do is to provide cost of living relief in a number of areas so we can make things a little bit easier,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“Cheaper child care will make life easier for a lot of families in a way that doesn’t add substantially to the inflation challenge in our economy.”
The government will also set aside $72.4 million across five years to support the training of childcare workers.
More than 80,000 early childhood educators are set to benefit, with a focus on regional and remote services and Indigenous organisations.
The private sector is confident the Albanese government can hand down a responsible budget that’s good for business.
More than two-thirds of mid-sized business owners surveyed agreed the budget would be positive for the sector.
But the RSM Australia survey of more than 300 mid-sized businesses also found almost a third thought their own business would be in a worse position post-budget, with half believing they would be in a better spot and 17.5 per cent predicting no change.
RSM Australia chief executive partner Jamie O’Rourke said small and medium sized businesses were comfortable with Labor’s approach to tax reform that’s largely targeted at the big end of town.
But he also said the focus on responsible budgeting that does not fuel inflation would mean little extra support for businesses.
“This doesn’t bode well for new cash injections for businesses or households outside what the government has already promised, such as targeted energy bill relief and a focus on the disadvantaged,” he said.
© AAP 2023
