Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Aston for her question. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Aston with the member for Aston some months ago. We got to visit an early childhood education centre and, importantly, we also spoke to some of the young people taking advantage of our fee-free TAFE to do an early childhood education and care certificate.

This government's No. 1 priority is cost-of-living relief for every Australian through tax cuts, when they're at the doctors, through energy relief and, of course, through cheaper child care. We're listening to early childhood educators and workers and we're taking tangible actions to ease their cost-of-living pressures. For too long this sector was forgotten and neglected by those opposite. I'm proud to say that this government has made an historic commitment to contribute funding towards a wage increase for early childhood workers. It's a critical first step in delivering our ambition and our vision for a universal early childhood education and care system. We know that we can't do that without a strong and sustainable early learning workforce.

This morning I visited Goodstart Garran with the lovely member for Canberra and I heard from early childhood educators and workers just how important this commitment is to them and what it means to them as educators and teachers. As Ros Baxter, the CEO of Goodstart Early Learning, said this morning, 'It's wonderful to have a government that is investing in this critical sector and our youngest children.' Early childhood educators and teachers have worked so hard and for so long in this critical sector. For them to know that they're finally getting the recognition that they deserve for the work that they do is, indeed, a watershed moment.

On top of this, our tax cuts will bring further cost-of-living relief to early childhood educators. For an early childhood educator on $46,000 a year, that's an extra $829 in their pocket. An average early childhood teacher is getting a tax cut of $1,404. That's real money back in the pockets of people who do some of the most important work in our society, because they deserve more than just our gratitude.

Those opposite had absolutely no plan for this sector. They had 10 years to do something, and they did nothing. In contrast, we're charting the course for an affordable, accessible and inclusive world-class early childhood education and care sector. While those opposite are here to yell across the aisle and say no to everything, we're getting things done. (Time expired)

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