As a working mum with two young kids, I’m fully aware of how hard it can be to strike the right balance between working toward a career and extremely expensive childcare fees. Australia’s system is set up in a way that means many parents will actually lose money if they work more than 3 days per week.

This disproportionately impacts women and has long term consequences. Women are still predominantly the primary caregivers and as such take much more time off work. This means that when it comes to retirement, the average Australian women has 25% less in their superannuation accounts than the average man.

Working parents should have the choice, flexibility and opportunity to access affordable childcare when they need to. That’s why Labor has introduced changes to the system which will make childcare cheaper for 97% of families. Our legislation has removed the annual cap on the childcare subsidy and increased the maximum subsidy to 90%.

Accessible, affordable childcare will continue to benefit millions of working families. I’m proud to be a member of a party that recognises this and has worked hard to make it a reality.

You can find the full details of Labor's policy here.