Childcare

Worth knowing which.

Affordable, quality childcare is what lets a lot of families work at all. It means kids are looked after somewhere safe, parents can hold down a job, and children get a foot in the door on their education before school even starts.

So it's worth looking at how the people asking for your vote have treated it when it's come up in parliament.

In February 2025, parliament passed the Three Day Guarantee – a law giving every eligible family at least three days a week of subsidised early education and care, worth up to $1,460 a year for a family earning between $50,000 and $100,000. Pauline Hanson voted no, at both the second and third reading.

We were surprised too, so we went back through the record. That vote wasn't a one-off.

2025 – the Three Day Guarantee

The Three Day Guarantee scrapped the old “activity test” that locked lower-income families out of subsidised care, and went on to give more than 100,000 families extra subsidised hours. Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts both voted no in the Senate, and Barnaby Joyce voted no against the same bill in the House of Representatives.

2019 – emergency childcare for high-needs families

When families with high-needs children were left without anywhere able to take them, parliament had the chance to get emergency In Home Care funding out the door. Pauline Hanson voted no.

2017 – pay for the people looking after your kids

When the educators looking after young children were earning as little as $21 an hour, parliament voted on giving them a pay rise. Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts voted no.

Where One Nation says it wants to take childcare

This isn't only about past votes. One Nation's own income-splitting policy says it wants to “encourage parents to look after their own children, and reduce the cost to the government of childcare, especially pre-school.” Separately, the party has proposed scrapping the childcare subsidy altogether and replacing it with a tax deduction – a model that gives the most back to higher earners and the least to the families who rely on the subsidy most.

The pattern

Across three separate parliaments, when the vote was about making childcare cheaper, more available, or better staffed, One Nation senators voted no each time. And where the party has spelled out what it wants instead, the direction is less subsidised care, not more.

It's worth being straight about the record: this is about childcare affordability and access specifically, and that's where the votes line up consistently. Don't take our word for any of it – every vote here is on the public record, and you can check it yourself at theyvoteforyou.org.au or on the Australian Parliament's website.