ACTU boss Sally McManus has responded to the Australian’s report that the Coalition will reinstate the activity test in order for parents to access subsidised child care:

The Coalition’s only real policy for women so far is to take away guaranteed subsidised childcare from them.
In addition, they are scrapping free TAFE, which is essential for workers in the early childhood sector.
This decision will not only have a big financial impact on the care workforce, it will also make accessing childcare harder for all families, as centres will struggle to employ qualified workers.
Bringing back the activity test for parents is poor policy and will hurt parents by cutting this important cost-of-living relief measure.
The Coalition’s approach to taking this away will hurt thousands of women – because the reality is that women still shoulder most of the caregiving load while families seek more flexible work arrangements.
Peter Dutton owns three childcare centres. He wanted to keep those who work in them on extremely low pay as he opposed the long overdue pay rises for early educators, calling it ‘a sugar hit.’

Now he wants to stop childcare fee relief from reaching families.”