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

I thank the wonderful member for Moreton for his question and for his interest in a quality early childhood education and care system for all Australian children. This government's No. 1 priority is cost-of-living relief for every Australian, and that's why we introduced our Cheaper Child Care reforms in our very first year—reforms, I might remind the House, that those opposite said were unnecessary but reforms that have reduced out-of-pocket expenses by, on average, 11 per cent on average for centre based care and that provide cost-of-living relief for more than one million Australian families.

I'm proud of what the Albanese Labor government has achieved in our two years of office. But we know that there is more to do to reach our vision of an affordable, accessible and inclusive early childhood education and care system. The Productivity Commission and the ACCC have told us that we can't reach that vision without a sustainable and stable workforce. And we know that the key to this is wages, because, as early childhood workers tell me all the time, 'We love what we do, but love doesn't pay the bills.' That's why we passed legislation to get wages moving and close the gender pay gap. That's why we've advocated for a wage increase in three annual wage review decisions since we came to government. From next month, that means a further 3.7 per cent pay rise for early childhood workers. We've also provisioned funding in this year's budget for a wage increase for early childhood workers.

That's not all, because our tax cuts will bring further cost-of-living relief. That means, on average, $829 for the average early childhood educator and $1,404 for the average early childhood teacher. That will go back into the pockets of the people who do some of the most important work in our society.

We know that the coalition deliberately kept wages low, contributing to a workforce crisis in early childhood education and care.

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