Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

This is also important economic reform because more people like Jessica means more children and more parents can take advantage of the life-changing work that they do. This is a pay rise for people like Jessica but, more than that, it is also a price cap to keep prices down for more than a million families right across the country. It's the first step that we need to take to build a truly universal early education system. Soon I'll release the Productivity Commission's final report on this.

More than that, this is about respect: respect for these workers in the gallery today and right across the country, respect for mums and dads and the decisions that they take and respect that the Liberal Party finds hard to must. Last time we did this, they didn't just oppose it. They didn't just vote against it. They actually condemned it. This time, when we announced this pay rise, they said that it would destroy the family unit. Paying people like Jessica, some of the most important and underpaid workers in this country, more should be backed, not bagged. That's what this does; it is a pay rise for workers like Jessica and price caps for parents. If that's not legislation that the Liberal Party should back, I don't know what is.

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