Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

and some men—who nurture the next generation, where are they? Are they on the floor engaging with the children, or reading, or teaching? No, they are locked in the director's office doing the paperwork.

The member for Barton talked about breaking regulations to open centres, because Labor was so inflexible when it introduced this regime. It said, 'if we do not have the exact ratios complied with for every second of the day, then you cannot stay open'. So, if I am a centre director who gets to work to find one of my preschool teachers called in sick and I cannot find another on short notice, I cannot replace that person with a qualified educator who is not a preschool teacher, but who might still be qualified with an Certificate III in Education. Instead I have to ring the department and get permission to open my centre. This is ridiculous. This is madness. We do not want the wonderful, caring, quality educators who nurture the next generation to have to find another job because they cannot do the thing they love—and the thing they are trained in.

Opposition members interjecting—

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