Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment, I present the following advisory reports, incorporating dissenting reports, together with the minutes of proceedings and evidence received by the committee: Early Years Quality Fund Special Account Bill 2013 and the Australian Education (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2013.

In accordance with standing order 39(f) the reports were made parliamentary papers.

by leave—The advisory report on the Early Years Quality Fund Special Account Bill 2013 was referred on 30 May by the House of Representatives Selection Committee for inquiry and report. The bill establishes a special account to administer the Early Years Quality Fund, providing for $300 million to be credited to the fund over two years.

The fund will provide financial assistance to approved early childcare services to be used exclusively for pay remuneration and other employment related costs and expenses. Both for-profit and not-for-profit service providers will be eligible to apply for funding. Approximately 7,000 centres are eligible to apply for funding, covering over 78,000 workers.

The objective of the fund is to attract and retain qualified professionals working in the early childcare sector. It is anticipated that high wages will have a positive impact on attracting and retaining qualified employees in the sector and increasing professionalism overall.

Further, a key component of quality education is the opportunity for quality interaction between educator and child. International studies have shown that, as children develop, with longer attachments to their educators, their education and care experience is equally enhanced. Retaining early educators in the sector is therefore an important factor when striving for high educational outcomes for these Australian children.

The committee notes in its report the significant level of misinformation promoted by stakeholders on both sides of this debate. However, the committee focused specifically on the merits of the bill before it. In addition, the committee received a large volume of submissions as a result of campaigns run by both sides of the debate. The report notes that such campaigns are not an effective way to engage with parliamentary committees and are particularly ineffective in bills inquiries. I would encourage all stakeholders wishing to run such a campaign to contact the respective committee secretariats about more effective ways of communicating with committees.

As the terms of the bill meet the government's policy objective, the committee recommends that the House pass the bill. I commend that report to the House.

In relation to the advisory report on the Australian Education (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2013, on 5 June 2013 the House of Representatives Selection Committee referred the Australian Education (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2013 for inquiry and report. The reason for that referral was to ensure scrutiny of legislation associated with the Australian Education Bill.

The bill amends certain Commonwealth laws and contains transitional arrangements consequential to the enactment of the Australian Education Bill 2012, which was passed with amendments by this House on 5 June 2013.

The majority of submissions received by this inquiry focused on the policy and provisions of the Australian Education Bill rather than the bill before the inquiry itself. Although the current bill contains transitional and consequential amendments to the Australian Education Bill, the latter is not the subject of this inquiry and therefore issues raised by these stakeholders are not discussed in the committee's report.

Given that the proposed bill gives effect to the decision already taken by the House, the committee recommends that the bill be passed. I commend the report to the House.

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