The Productivity Commission Inquiry report examines the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector, including: centre-based day care; preschools; family day care; outside school hours care; and in home care.

This report outlines what a universal ECEC system would look like, and the significant reforms necessary to achieve it. These reforms tackle issues that affect ECEC availability, inclusion, affordability, quality and equity. The report's recommendations aim to remove barriers to ECEC access such as the activity test, and support better outcomes for children and families including fully subsidised childcare for families earning under A$80,000 from 2026 and 3 days a week of high-quality early education and care for all families with children under 5.

Dr Melissa Tham from the Mitchell Institute summarises the report and offers an analysis in The Conversation.

Advocacy group The Parenthood has released a report spotlighting the negative impacts of inaccessible early learning on regional, rural and remote communities.  The report shares the stories of 160 parents, carers, educators and community leaders who are bearing the brunt of early learning and care shortages in those communities.

The Parenthood found 86% of families from regional, rural and remote communities struggling to access early learning services face financial stress. They report the Jobs and Skills early childhood Census revealed it would take around 21,000 early childhood education workers to meet the current demand in the industry, and the ramifications of this nation-wide shortage hits even harder and regional, rural and remote communities.