The Australian has reported that the Coalition wants to reinstate the activity test for child care – the activity test has been found to be one of the more regressive policies for parents trying to access care for their children. To qualify for the subsidy, you have to prove your ‘activity’ – work or volunteering – which can be severely limiting for parents and carers looking after younger children or babies while wanting care for their children. It can be particularly limiting for people with health challenges or who are unemployed and unable to access subsidised care to either help them have a break, or find the space to re-enter the workforce, if that is what they wish.

It has been raised time and time again as one of the biggest barriers for women and serves no purpose other than to punish parents and carers by not valuing care responsibilities or the labour involved in child raising.

Labor finally announced it would scrap it as part of its childcare reforms, but according to the Australian, the Coalition wants to bring it back:

Peter Dutton would reinstate the activity test for parents wishing to access childcare if he wins the election, reversing Labor’s decision to give parents the ability to access taxpayer-funded subsidies for three days of care a week regardless of whether they are seeking employment, working or studying.

The Australian can reveal an elected Coalition government would not scrap the $1bn Building Early Education Fund announced by Anthony Albanese last year to set up more than 160 new childcare centres, instead committing to keep the fund in place to “be invested into early childhood education around Australia”.

As part of its childcare policy platform, announced a week before the election, the Coalition will set up a $100m grant program to be offered to providers setting up “flexible and innovative alternatives” to the long daycare model. This could include the ­delivery of mobile daycare, ­employer-supported models of care or bush kindy, delivered outdoors and in nature.