Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australians will soon be asked who is best placed to form government, and they'll start making comparisons between us and them. I thought I'd do a little comparison myself, so let's start with early childhood education. Labor believes in and supports our early childhood education sector. Early childhood education delivers for our children, for families and for our economy. To have a viable early childhood education sector, we need the workers to sustain it. That's why we've funded a 15 per cent pay rise. These are pretty reasonable, sane policy positions.

Now, let's look at what the Liberals think. There's this guy called Gerard Rennick. He's a senator, believe it or not. He said that early education 'destroys the family unit' and that it 'brainwashes children with the woke mind virus'. Come on. The family unit in 2024 is not the family unit from 1924. For women to work, we need an early education sector that is affordable. For our economy to grow, we need an early education sector that is accessible. Labor will do these things and more.

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