Any opportunity to discuss child care in this House is a great day. Affordable and accessible child care is not just a policy issue; it's a fundamental matter for equity and fairness. It's about ensuring that every child, no matter their background, has the opportunity to thrive, and it's about supporting families so they can balance their careers, their aspirations and their responsibilities at home. It's also about strengthening our economy, because, when you give people access to child care, they are able to participate fully in the workforce. It's great for productivity. That's why the Albanese Labor government's cheaper childcare policy is so vital.
The member for Moncrieff's motion before us today frankly raises more questions than answers.
Ms Bell interjecting—
The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Dr Freelander): Order! The member for Moncrieff, you were heard in silence.
Ms CLAYDON: The member is asking the government to deliver more access to early childhood education and care places, to support Australians to return to the workforce and as cost-of-living relief for families. Well, the good news for the member for Moncrieff is that we do have a whole lot of answers to her concerns. She need only look at Labor's cheaper childcare policies in order to understand the benefits.
I've spoken to so many families in Newcastle who have struggled to find childcare spots for their kids and who are struggling with the cost of child care. That is precisely why the Albanese Labor government is taking action and investing $1 billion, to ensure that all children have access to the transformational benefits of early learning and to reduce costs for families, too. Our cheaper childcare policy is delivering cost-of-living relief to more than one million families by cutting those out-of-pocket costs. As a result, the average family is approximately $2,768 better off. This is in stark contrast to the last four years of the Liberal government, where prices went up twice as much as the OECD average.
Since coming to government there are now 1,083 new early education and childcare services, with nearly 30 per cent of those outside of the major cities. We've now got almost 42,000 more educators in the system and around 97,000 more children in early education. Today there are more than 125,000 educators in the pipeline, training up, because we're investing in TAFE as well. These figures are the result of the Albanese Labor government's investments into serious reform in the childcare and early education sector.
We know there is more work to do cleaning up the mess left behind for this government by those opposite. Remember, the Liberals introduced the activity test, which families have long told me is a big barrier for so many women and families to access the childcare subsidy. As part of our reforms, Labor's going to be abolishing that activity test. We'll be introducing a three-day guarantee instead. Under Labor's three-day guarantee more families will be guaranteed three days of that childcare subsidy. These reforms are set to cast a really wide net, benefiting thousands of women and families who were previously excluded from the subsidy. For example, child care will now be available for parents who are looking for work or are beginning their studies. They need support. They were previously excluded by the Liberals' activity test. That's why we're getting rid it; it was bad policy.
In addition to all of those reforms, Labor is delivering a really important 15 per cent wage increase for early childhood education workers. That is providing a terrific incentive needed to attract more educators to the workforce. In fact, Goodstart, the biggest employer in the country, says their job applications have increased by 35 per cent and expressions of interest are up 50 to 60 per cent. Labor is also establishing the $1 billion Building Early Education Fund, which will build and expand more centres in areas of need, including in my electorate of Newcastle. Sadly, those opposite have described our efforts to fix the childcare mess they left behind as smoke and mirrors. This is not smoke and mirrors; this is evidence based reform. I know it's an anathema for many members opposite, but that's how we work in government.
Only a Labor government will deliver fairer and decent wage increases, build capacity in the system and provide cost-of-living relief for Australian families.
