Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

While the former speaker is present: I did meet with the minister about this issue. The minister Anne Aly did come to my electorate, and she did go to the childcare centre attached to the hospital. For the member who is leaving the chamber and not listening to this contribution, I am a regional MP and I represent a regional electorate. There are 32 early childhood education providers in my electorate, and there are two towns in particular where there is a workforce crisis occurring and where we do have access issues. One of the centres has a waitlist of 365. That is how dire it is. But this isn't a new waitlist. They've had a waitlist for a long time. In fact, it goes back a decade.

It is important in this debate to recognise the history of where we have got to. What the previous member failed to recognise is that one of the reasons that we have such a shortage of available places is that we are experiencing a workforce shortage. It is highlighted in the motion that's being moved, but what this motion doesn't do is actually articulate why we have that shortage. What I've heard not just from the centres that I have visited but from employers is that it's because the wages are too low. What we have not heard from those opposite is the fact that many early childhood educators, despite having a degree, diploma or formal qualifications, are still paid award wages. They simply can't keep up with the cost of living, so they are choosing to work elsewhere.

Earlier today, I heard from employers who are participating in the multi-employer bargaining process, which they have welcomed and are part of. They said that, when educators leave the sector or resign, many of them are in tears. They love their work and they love their job, but they are leaving because they simply do not earn enough to pay the bills. They can get higher pay in other areas, whether it's retail, hospitality, aged care or disability. Educators are leaving in droves not because they don't love the work and not because they're not committed to the work but because they simply don't earn enough. That is why the multi-employer bargaining process that the sector is undertaking is long overdue and needed.

A decade ago, the former government abolished the start of correcting this pay issue that we are seeing in the sector. They abolished the equal pay fund that looked at starting to address the fact that educators are underpaid. Here we are, and it has taken a decade for a Labor government to get elected to introduce reforms to finally address the issue of wages. Increasing wages in the sector will help address the access issues. Of all the centres that we spoke to in my electorate, 89 per cent said they currently don't have a space for an under-three-year-old. For nought to three, they have no spaces available. But, if wages were to lift, they could attract educators back and about a third of our centres said that they could open more rooms.

This is a common problem not just in my electorate of Bendigo but throughout regional Australia and in the metro. Rooms are closed. Licence capacity is not being met and rooms are closed because we don't have enough educators, and attracting skilled workers back to the sector is about increasing wages. Another comment that we heard from employers—the small businesses that the previous speaker spoke about—is that there has been an 80 per cent drop in applications to come and work as early childhood educators. They also said that they constantly have an ad up, trying to recruit educators and teachers to come and work in the sector. That is the collapse that has happened.

We are working as fast as we can as a government to address this issue. That is why it is disappointing that those opposite offer no solutions on how to address the workforce issues but instead have a go at us for trying to correct the pay issue. Pay is linked to attracting talented educators back to the sector. If you work on educating our youngest Australians, you should not be paid minimum wage; you should be paid what you're worth. I want to acknowledge the employers and the employees, and their unions and their peak associations, for coming together to try and work out a multi-employer agreement to help address the issue of wages in the sector.

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