I rise in support of this bill which removes the activity test for early childhood education and care. Childcare is important for children and for families. And the activity test which requires the parents are working or studying in order to get subsidised child care is based on an assumption that early childhood education and care is a benefit for parents but not for kids. Quality care actually benefits kids, especially from lower socio economic families. Quality early childhood education is linked to improved academic achievement, reduced delinquency, increased school completion, higher earnings in adulthood and improved social and emotional wellbeing. This benefits everyone. I remember after having each of my three children, the challenge of looking for a job while still caring for kids full-time. And it feels like a chicken and egg situation. You can't afford to pay for the care unless you have a job and you can't search for a job, go to interviews or even to know how much you'll be able to work until you've secured childcare. Thrive by Five's Jay Weatherill points out the activity test has particularly punished single mothers, casual workers and those looking for work. They get trapped in a cycle where you can't get childcare if you don't have a job lined up and you can't get a job if you don't have childcare lined up. It's fantastic to have the option of staying home with your kids but I know how much my kids gained from the stimulation of being in centre based care and how important the work is there were to their development. Educators at my kid's childcare centres taught them things that kept surprising me as a parent. They came home with new knowledge, new ways of resolving conflict, as well as the inevitable new viruses building up their immune systems. This bill provides a guaranteed minimum of 72 hours per fortnight of subsidised early childhood education and care for all families regardless of whether mums are working or studying. All households with a total income of $530,000 or less, will be able to access some level of subsidised care. And it will provide much-needed cost of living relief for nearly 67,000 families in the first year alone. And lower income families will save an average of $1,460 per year. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids, that guarantee is 100 hours per fortnight which is aimed at closing the gap in school readiness. Catherine Liddle CEO of SNAICC which is the National Voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children calls it a game changer for first-nations babies, meaning more children will be ready for school and set up for a thriving future. Ms Liddle also refers to wider impacts in the community with recent studies showing interventions in early childhood education and care settings with vulnerable children and their families may be the key to reducing youth crime. I understand that in the short-term, this will put pressure on the sector. Short-term transitional issues should not prevent good long-term reform like this. We need to be able to be bold and have ambition, rather than only seeing the transitional problems. The transition will need to be managed but paying early childcare workers more under the laws passed in November will definitely help. It's always chicken and egg with supply and demand, if you change one, the other one needs to catch up. But unless we actually make these bold decisions, then nothing will improve. This change is supported by the Productivity Commission, the women's economic equality task force, the ACCC, thrive by five, early childhood Australia, all of whom have made important policy contributions to improving outcomes to families and the economy over the long term. Western Australia's own Minderoo Foundation has pointed out this could lead to almost 40,000 parents being able to return to work or increase their hours if they want to. I join Parenthood CEO Georgie Dent in commending this bill. She says dropping the test is a profound win for children, equity and the nation. And I commend this bill to the House.