Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I got to hang out with a bunch of four- and five-year-olds just before Christmas at the graduation of students from the Euroka Children's Centre, a not-for-profit community based long day care centre in the Blue Mountain that's been operating since 1985. We were outside in their play area, which we as a government have committed $20,000 to, to help with improvements in the play space. Their plan is for things like slides, a rock wall and scramble nets.

It's too easy to dismiss the idea of play areas as a secondary thing in education and as something that's simply a respite from learning, whereas some of the most important lessons young children can learn—and I would argue all children—happen in the playground. Learning to share, learning to take turns and learning to respond appropriately to social cues can mean the difference between an easier or harder journey as an adult, not to mention the physical skills development that occurs, the managing of fear and excitement and 1,001 other emotions and skills. So it's no surprise to me that parents who have watched their children develop under the care of the Euroka team cheered to know that even though their children might not benefit, future kids would. Their biggest applause was when I mentioned the Albanese government's commitment to making early childhood education and care more affordable for families.

I thank the member for Fowler for raising this important issue, which is a game changer for families and for our economy. We know our landmark reforms are only possible if we retain, recruit and train a high-quality workforce, and we have a plan to do exactly that.

I want early childhood educators in my electorate of Macquarie, the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury, to know that I appreciate the pressures that you're facing and your workload, and that we, as a government, value the vital role you play, which can shape a child's future. Our plan to support early educators, the directors of preschools and long day care centres and the parents who rely on them begins with recognition of the professionalisation of this workforce, recognition that they are educators not childminders, recognition that they are highly trained experts, recognition of the need for significant career pathways and recognition that all these things have been ignored by a decade of neglect and inaction from previous Liberal governments.

We know changes are needed. We've committed to working with early educators, the sector and unions to overcome long-term issues like the persistent challenges to attract and retain staff, and the huge gaps that mean people in regional areas, including mine, cannot access early childhood education and care when they need it or as much as they need it. Both the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains have been identified as having serious shortages of places.

The contrast between our approach to these issues and that of the Liberals while in government is stark. They ignored, denied, minimised and did as little as possible to address the really pressing issues. By contrast, we take these issues seriously and look to have responses that mean we don't have to revisit the same issue every few years, because we aim for a longer-term, sustainable response.

Tackling childcare costs is a fundamental way to reduce the cost-of-living pressures that families are facing. It will make early childhood education more affordable for 1.2 million families. Seventy-five per cent of those families earn less than $180,000 a year, and around 50 per cent earn less than $120,000 a year. The costs of child care for these families are a big chunk of their pay packet, and this will help. What's more, it means that people who couldn't look for work, because of the prohibitive costs of early childhood education and care, will now have more choices. Last year, 73,000 people who wanted to work didn't look, just for that reason. That means that, while this is about families with young children, it's also about the skills shortage and the local businesses in my community who can't find people to work.

Attracting new workers to the early childhood sector is essential for all this to happen. We know that the shortages can't, in the short term, be filled through the domestic market, so we've looked to migration to help ease the shortages by expanding the migration program to 35,000 places and prioritising visa processing for qualified teachers, including early childhood teachers. In partnership with the states, we're delivering 180,000 fee-free TAFE and vocational places. That includes 10,000 places right now for early childhood studies in New South Wales. That's a start, and we know there's more that we'll do.

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