The Productivity Commission (PC) has today released its Draft Report into Childcare and Early Childhood Learning, which explicitly criticises the merits of Tony Abbott’s Paid Parental Leave (PPL) scheme, and recommends that some of the $5.5 billion earmarked for PPL would be better spent on childcare:
The Commission considers that it is unclear that the proposed changes to the Paid Parental Leave scheme — which is more generous than the existing scheme and that recommended in the Commission’s 2009 report on paid parental leave — would bring significant additional benefits to the broader community beyond those occurring under the existing scheme. There may be a case, therefore, for diverting some funding from the proposed new scheme to another area of government funding, such as ECEC [Early Childhood Education and Care], where more significant family benefits are likely. Such a move could add up to a further $1.5 billion per year to Australian Government assistance for ECEC.
