KPMG’s report The Child Care Subsidy: options for increasing support for caregivers who want to work, reveals increasing the federal government’s childcare subsidy from 85% to 95% would boost GDP by up to $7.4B per year at a cost of $5.4B a year.

Madeline Hislop reports in Women's Agenda that, over a 20-year period, a near fully funded childcare model could increase GDP by up to $10B through the cumulative benefit of parents’ increased productivity.  Such an increase to the childcare subsidy would incentivise parents to increase their participation in the paid workforce and help rebuild the Australian economy, as it enters its first recession since the 1990s.

Under the current childcare subsidy, families have significant out of pockets costs which create a disincentive for secondary earners in a family, most commonly mothers, work more hours as it can leave families worse off when childcare costs are deducted. KPMG Chair Alison Kitchen reports that affordability of childcare is a key issue facing working parents.