Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I find it quite astonishing that we've just heard how dreadful it is that we're making decisions that are going to reduce the cost of living for families, like bringing down childcare prices and giving workers a pay rise. At the same time we've just listened to a list of complaints rather than any substantial contribution. It makes me lament the fact that, in this place, there is not a contest of ideas on this very important issue of the cost of living and early childhood education. It's just an opportunity to politicise things that shouldn't be politicised, in my view, like making sure that early childhood educators get a much-deserved pay rise and that families have lower childcare costs. That should be above politics, but yet again we're seeing really cheap attacks from the opposition.

We saw this sector neglected for almost a decade. Families had been struggling to access the early childhood education services they needed. In contrast, we're working to build a universal early childhood education and care system that's accessible, affordable and inclusive. I think these are aims that people in this place should support, no matter what political party they're from. We've already made some really good progress on this front with our cheaper childcare reforms, making early learning more affordable for more than a million Australian families. Of course, we know there's more to do, because you can't undo 10 years of damage overnight.

We've received the final report from the Productivity Commission, helping us to chart the course to universal early learning that meets the needs of families across all of Australia. In my own electorate, I undertook a survey on this very important issue and made a submission on behalf of my electorate to the Productivity Commission, as well as hosting roundtables with Minister Anne Aly. I know people in my electorate are very concerned about the state of early childhood education, and the neglect that we've seen from those opposite. They are really eager to be engaged in the next steps that our government is taking to improve the sector.

We can't achieve our vision for accessible, affordable and inclusive early childhood education without a quality and sustainable workforce. We know that, and that's why our government is funding a 15 per cent wage increase for early childhood education and care workers. I'm unapologetic about the fact that we're doing that. Those opposite might see it as a problem, that we are giving a mostly female workforce a much deserved pay rise for educating the youngest members of our community, but I simply will not back away from this very important commitment from our government. This overdue pay rise for workers in early childhood education will commence from December this year. I want to acknowledge the many advocates who have been meeting with members of parliament, right across the country, to convey the importance of this pay increase. Importantly, we're increasing the pay for workers in early childhood education and care while keeping costs for childcare and education low for families—reducing those costs. Measures in this year's budget have built on what we've already delivered to date and are paving the way, as I mentioned earlier, for what will follow in response to Productivity Commission's report.

Again, I would hope that this is something that members in this House can get behind, because this is about the youngest people in our communities getting vital education in those first five years, which we know have lifelong benefits. We know that through investing in early childhood education and care we're investing in children, but we're also investing in the productivity of the nation when more parents are able to go into the workforce. We know that this is something that primarily impacts women. Through increasing wages for early childhood educators, we are getting a triple benefit by making sure that those hardworking educators are staying in this very important field of work.

I'm pretty sick of the negativity I'm hearing from those opposite. This is something where, I would have hoped, we could have had a vision for the future—for the children who are in education now and the benefits that they will bring to the country when we invest properly in the first five years of their life.

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