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🇨🇱 Chile /Elections & Politics

Minister Rau’s outburst mars Senate approval of universal childcare bill

From Cooperativa · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Approved/passed
  • Chile’s Senate advanced the universal childcare bill in its first stage and approved financing through a fund.
  • Senators rejected an employer-paid contribution and approved an amendment making young children holders of the right to childcare.
  • Labour Minister Tomás Rau apologized for an expletive caught on an open microphone and said rejected provisions could be reintroduced later.

Chile’s Senate advanced the universal childcare bill in its first stage, but the session was marked by an off-microphone outburst from Labour Minister Tomás Rau.

What a disaster, man.

· Tomás RauThe Chilean labour minister was caught saying this while his microphone remained open during the Senate session.

The Senate approved a proposal to finance the benefit through a fund. It rejected the provision that would have financed it through a contribution paid by employers.

Senators also approved an amendment by Yasna Provoste of the Christian Democratic Party declaring that young children themselves would hold the right to childcare. As his microphone remained open, Rau was heard saying, “What a disaster, man.”

In a first stage, some articles are rejected because certain quorum requirements were not met. In these cases, the appropriate course is to reintroduce the article at the following stages.

· Tomás RauRau explained how rejected provisions could return during the remaining legislative process.

After the session, Rau described the outburst as completely unfortunate. He said some provisions had been rejected because the required voting thresholds were not met, and that the articles could be reintroduced at later stages of the legislative process.

I think that on a historic day, referring to an open-microphone outburst, which was completely unfortunate on my part, makes no sense here.

· Tomás RauRau sought to move attention back to the Senate’s legislative action after the session.
About this summary

Originally published by Cooperativa in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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