ACT senator David Pocock secures changes to Cheaper Child Care bill

Senator Pocock secured support for his amendment to Labor's bill for cheaper childcare, which would submit the legislation to the Productivity Commission for review, arguing Parliament should not "set it, and then largely forget" about its reforms.

"With this legislation, clearly, the need for early childhood educators to receive a pay rise is important," he said.

"It is crucial. It is urgent. As people in the ACT have said to me, 'You can earn more working at Bunnings than educating and caring for the next generation of Australians'."

The independent senator successfully proposed amendments to the bill which called on the government in the forthcoming Productivity Commission review to include consideration of activity requirements, education outcomes, addressing access for disadvantaged children and sector workforce requirements.

Senator Pocock said Parliament should not "set it, and then largely forget about it", but should be "actively reviewing, monitoring and, when needed, amending and ensuring that we are heading down the right path".

"I note concerns about the lack of modelling and the need for more thorough modelling, and particularly how important reviewing the legislation is to ensure that it's doing what it sets out to do," he said.

An opposition amendment to the bill also gained support, calling for a separate independent review of the impacts of the changes to the laws for family support made by the child care bill.

Senator Pocock will also move an amendment to change the name of the legislation to "Family Assistance to provide more affordable early childhood education and care".

"Language is important and influences the way we think and behave. That's why I support calls from the sector to amend the name of this bill to be about providing more affordable early childhood education and care," he said.

The amendment also includes changes from the word "educator" to "staff" or "cook", which would expand discounts for the children of child care educators to other staff.

At the time of writing, the amendment had not passed but Senator Pocock was confident he had secured government support following negotiations.

Helen Gibbons, director of early education at the United Workers Union, said the union supported amendments to "improve transparency and accountability in early education and care"

"Discounts for any centre-based staff accessing early education are also welcome," she said.

"United Workers Union members passionately support changing the name of the bill, in recognition of the professional, complex and valuable work they do."

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Ms Gibbons also said the union supports abolishing the activity test, "as our members have always argued that it is a barrier to children accessing early education and care".

However, an amendment to abolish the activity test, introduced by Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi on Friday, was voted down by the Senate.

A submission from the union also called for financial reporting to be publicly available, which the legislation requires of large childcare providers.