Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was in the dark days of the pandemic and those dark days of opposition where we could in our communities just try and support people, particularly our essential workers, those people who fronted work every day during a pandemic and risked catching the menace COVID-19 themselves to look after some of our most vulnerable, that we had lots of conversations amongst Labor MPs about the care economy and about how little we as a society valued our workers in early education and in aged care. Today feels like a really special day to see the 15 per cent wage rise legislation in the parliament today for early educators. It feels like we're closing that loophole, with a 15 per cent pay rise for aged-care workers and now a 15 per cent pay rise for early educators to be delivered. It feels like we're sending a really strong message to that feminised workforce in the care economy that their work is valued, that we know that without their work our society functions less well, that we know and we acknowledge that during the pandemic their efforts made it possible for our society to continue.

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