Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the very hardworking member for Gilmore for bringing forward this private member's motion talking about one of the most important things for any society. There are a few facts that we need to establish. I know you, Deputy Speaker Freelander, as a lifelong doctor, someone who has worked helping children as a paediatrician, someone who has had his own fair swag of kids—six, if I'm not mistaken—have made your contribution to our population! I thank you for that.

I know that people listening to this are hearing about early education and caring for children. Whether or not you've had children of your own, there is a principle: being a parent is both the best job and the hardest job in the world. It's not unlike being a politician, to be frank. It brings with it great joys but also great challenges. I do get somewhat concerned when people are averse to talking about the care of children alongside their education, because for me it is not just about educating young children; it is about their care as well because in that care comes a world of education.

In my seat of Paterson, I am blessed with some of the best early childhood educators and carers that money can buy, and let's face it: this is also about money. When you pay people well, you get a really good outcome. When you value the work that people do, you get a really good outcome. That is the message that this Albanese government is sending not only to early childhood carers and educators but to parents across Australia. We value the care and education of your children and we are prepared to pay for it. As a society I think most people would agree with that.

In my electorate I recently had a brilliant Saturday afternoon at a local park in Thornton called Wirraway Park when did a mobile office session there. The park was packed with parents and their small children, who were playing on equipment, with balls and going down slippery slides. It was wonderful. While I was there, two women visited me at my mobile office and I had the most incredible experience with them because they came to talk to me about their sector, which was early childhood care and education, and they were talking about the pay rise they were seeking. In the time they were speaking to me, no less than half a dozen children in that park came up to those two women and knew them, and it was just brilliant. The interaction they had with the children was such a powerful thing for me to witness.

I want to thank those two women—Christine Scott and her daughter Hannah—who work at the Community Kids Thornton Child Care and Early Education Centre for not only what they do every day going to work but for the light that they'd created in the lives of those young people who interacted with them and me at Wirraway Park that day. Christine and Hannah talked to me about the challenges and their lived experience in their industry. This is a female dominated sector, and despite the important role of child educators and carers in our society it is still a low-paying job. That can't continue, and as a government we've recognised that. For women around the country this is a real problem and that's why we're trying to deliver the best solution we can deliver at this point in time.

Our reforms to early childhood education are about recognising and growing this industry. We want more young people—whether they're women or young men—to be involved in early childhood education. It is vital. We are supporting centres to retain their staff and we're continuing to develop and strengthen recruitment and training pathways, which is so important. Our fee-free TAFE program has delivered a boost to the industry, with a Cert III in early childhood education and care being the most popular in the country. That speaks volumes about this.

I know a lot of people will say, 'But last time you did something with childcare costs they were just absorbed by the centres themselves.' We've now recognised that that can't happen again. As part of this agreement, we have said that the centres that are going to receive this uptick in funding can't put up their prices. That is so important as well.

Again, I want to say that we are doing absolutely everything that we can to not only attract people to this sector, but retain them by paying them well. We're going to continue to educate them well and we are going to continue to seek to improve the productivity of our country by getting more people to work because their children are in excellent education facilities.

See this speech in context