In her role as co-chair of the Early Learning and Care Council of Australia (ELACCA), Ms Hutchins applauded the Australian government's weekend announcement of a further $1.7 billion investment in early learning and care.

From July 1 2022, the government will increase the maximum Child Care Subsidy rate from 85 per cent to 95 per cent for families with more than one child in long day early learning and care services, and will also remove the annual fee cap.

Once triggered, the annual cap requires affected families to pay 100 per cent of fees for the remainder of the financial year.

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"We are very excited. Child care is just one of the most expensive bills for families," Ms Hutchins said.

"About 13 per cent of our families have a positive benefit where the child subsidy rate is increased to 95 per cent.

"Removing the cap is also very good news, especially for those families who would have budgeted on about paying $120 a day or $600 for one child a week. They no longer have to pay full freight.

"What it doesn't impact is out of school hours care. We wouldn't mind seeing some support for families using out of school hours care but this is a good start, a really good start."

Ms Hutchins said supporting parents to balance work and family responsibilities was one of the great services provided by Australia's early learning and care sector.

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"Importantly, our early learning and care services also support the learning, development and wellbeing of children," ELACCA CEO Elizabeth Death added.

"So, the government's investment in early learning and care always has multiple dividends and a mix of positive immediate and long-term effects. Affordable, high-quality early learning is good for children, parents and carers, and employers - now and into the future."

Ms Hutchins added early learning and care benefitted the educational outcomes for children.

"We want children to attend early learning and care because they are more likely to be resilient, more likely to go to university, more likely to finish high school," she said.

"We actually want to improve the educational outcomes of our children.

"Our next focus will be focusing on vulnerable children. How can we improve the participation of vulnerable children and how can we improve our numbers of vulnerable children."

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