Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It is not hard; that is absolutely true!

All these benefits—to our economy, to families, to our youngest Australians—are possible only because of the work early childhood educators do. Across Australia, whether at Moonee Ponds, where I was last Thursday, or wherever I go, it is the same uplifting experience.

The title of this bill speaks volumes: 'wage justice for early childhood education and care workers'. Wage justice means a 15 per cent pay rise—a 10 per cent pay rise starting this December and a further five per cent next December. That is an extra $100 a week for a typical early childhood educator this year and an extra $150 a week from next year. As with the historic pay rise we're delivering for aged-care workers, this is a boost for a workforce that is predominantly made up of women. It's no accident that we see the gender pay gap reduced to its lowest gap ever under my government. It's because of a conscious decision that we have made about gender equality. It's another crucial investment in recruiting and retaining the carers and educators that our nation needs to succeed in the future.

I do want to emphasise this point as well, which goes to an example of how the government is making sure we deliver for people cost-of-living support whilst also making sure that our responsible economic management helps across the board: in order for a childcare provider to receive the funding for this pay rise, they have to agree to cap their fee increases. They have to agree to do that. This means that, while we're getting wages up for childcare workers, we're getting costs down for families. We're doing this by bringing together the providers, the workers and the unions, because our government understands you always get more done with cooperation than conflict and because we're focused on building an economy that works for people, not the other way around, where wages and productivity rise together, where we value the power of education and the work of educators, and where every Australian family can choose affordable and accessible early education for their children if that is what they want to do.

This legislation delivers for two generations of Australians, and it is in the finest traditions of the Labor Party. We, on this side of the House, believe in gender equity. On the other side of the House, the alternative Prime Minister is attending the Athenaeum Club, having fundraisers at events where women are banned from being members. It says it all about the contrast that is there between this government's approach to equality for women and the dinosaur approach of those opposite who are promoting a club that excludes women from membership in 2024—something that I would have thought was something that was abandoned many decades ago.

I am very proud to join with every member of the government in commending this bill to the House. I thank the minister, the member for Cowan, very much for her work, ably supported here by the education minister. Both of them are so passionate about opportunity and how education is the key to creating that opportunity for all, which is about creating an opportunity for Australia to seize to be the best country that we can be in the future. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.

See this speech in context