Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the contribution from the member for Bendigo. How good it is to be in a House where we have parents of young children who are members of parliament and who can give lived experience of what it's like to be juggling work and early education and care and who can give us lived experience of the extraordinary quality of the early childhood educators that we have across Australia. So I thank the member for Bendigo for sharing her story just now.

Quality early childhood education is transformational. As an Independent member of parliament I support a childcare system where families can access affordable child care no matter where they live and no matter their income. Universal child care is among, I think, the most aspirational goals we as a nation could have. It supports the cognitive, social and emotional development of our children and it prepares them better for the challenges that life throws before all of us. For parents and caregivers, it helps makes it easier to balance parenthood and work and this benefits whole communities because so many moms and dads work in vital jobs particularly in our regions, whether that be nursing, teaching, psychology, running a small business or so many other professions and occupations. A thriving early childhood education sector should also create rewarding careers for those who work in it, the carers and educators who help our young people as they develop foundational skills that set them up for life.

So I support the intention of this bill, the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Bill 2024, because it will make a difference and it will reward a workforce so often undervalued and underpaid. As a society, we do not do nearly enough to recognising the life-changing influence that early childhood educators have on our young people and all the skills that are required to do these jobs well. I want this to change. Like the member for Bendigo, I have met with many, many early education and care workers and professionals, and I absolutely value what they do.

This bill implements the government's decision to fund a 15 per cent wage rise for early childhood educators over two years. The minister said in his speech that a typical early educator will receive a pay rise of at least $103 per week or around $7,800 a year. That will make a difference to the educators and teachers contacting my office who are struggling with the cost of living or, indeed, finding suitable housing. Some are even considering leaving the children and centres that they love for better-paid jobs elsewhere, and we just can't allow that to happen.

Firstly, the bill creates a special account to be called the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers Special Account which will hold money for the purpose of delivering pay rises over two years through the worker retention payment program. Secondly, the bill will enable the minister to establish a grant program that funds childcare providers to pass on wage rises through their regular pay rise system. This will mean that early childhood educators won't be required to do anything. The pay rise will appear automatically in their payslip. The creation of a grant program will also enable the government to limit childcare fee increases to less than 4.4 per cent over the next 12 months. This will mean that the wage rise will be passed on in full to employees and won't see price rises for young families trying to access child care. That's really important because this is already so difficult for people in my electorate. However, the wage rise provided by this bill is only temporary. The bill also creates a sunset clause to reflect the pay rise is only for two years. This means the government has two years to ensure that sustainable and long-term wage rises for the childcare and education sector can be delivered. We simply cannot find ourselves in a situation in two years time where a sector seeking to grow and expand is then facing a 15 per cent drop in wages.

So, while I support the intention of this bill, it's a short-term fix and, at this point, is not the long-term solution that we need. The government says that this bill will deliver an interim payment while the Fair Work Commission finalises its gender undervaluation review of priority awards, which includes the Children's Services Award. The government is also considering longer term funding arrangements as part of its response to the recent Australian and Competition Consumer Commission and Productivity Commission reports.

As an independent MP scrutinising this plan, this raises some questions for me. How will this future transition be managed? As I said earlier, I support the intention of this bill, including plans to limit price increases to 4.4 per cent over the next year but I do ask the question: how would the limits of price rises be implemented in an inflationary economy? If inflation increases to more than 4.4 per cent then there could be severe impacts on the viability of childcare providers. I've heard from childcare providers in my electorate who really are very worried about the impact on their viability because the costs of providing high-quality care are still rising. The additional burden of administering wage rises on behalf of employees will only add to their mounting pressures.

While the government this week announced that limits on fee growth for 2025 will be determined by a new childcare cost index being developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the ABS, we at this stage have little understanding of what this index will look like and how it will work. And given the recent experiences that I've had in my electorate of outside school hours care providers, I am concerned about the government's ability to successfully implement this program, so we need to watch this. Nonetheless, we need these wage rises because providers tell me the lack of staff is the overwhelming reason they cannot meet the demand for child care in the regions, and we've heard this today in this House from various members of parliament.

The care industry has been undervalued for too long in our society and we see the evidence of that in the wages paid in sectors like early childhood education and care, aged care and disability care too. These are sectors with highly feminised workforces doing skilled work and, as a community, we are finally waking up and realising we cannot manage without these people and we certainly cannot manage without the high quality of the work that they deliver. A Jobs and Skills Australia report released last month found that the early child care and education workforce would need to grow by an additional eight per cent to satisfy estimated unmet demand for early childhood services. Across much of Australia, particularly in the regions, there are simply not enough educators to keep up with demand. And without enough early education and care workers, we don't have enough places available—you can see the pattern. I hope that, by increasing these wages, we will attract new workers to the sector and retain the workers who are already providing this invaluable and skilled care and education. Again, I commend the minister and the government on the work they are doing in the training of early education and care educators through TAFE; it is really important. I've met many of these students who are working in the sector and undertaking the studies, sometimes online, sometimes in person.

While child care is a family responsibility, we know in reality it is mothers who are disproportionately affected when child care is unavailable or difficult to obtain. There wouldn't be a woman in Australia right now who wouldn't smile and nod when they heard that. Take the story of Rebecca from Beechworth in my electorate. Rebecca wrote to me, sharing that her son was waiting so long for a childcare place to become available that he started school before he could attend child care. That is, quite frankly, absurd. I hear from mums driving their children 20, 40 or 60 kilometres to neighbouring towns so they can find a centre with availability. I speak to mothers who drive between different centres and who share between centres in order to get care, and this really does have real tangible impact on female workforce participation.

Recent ABS data showed that a lack of child care is the No. 1 reason stopping women from entering or re-entering the workforce. When families cannot access child care, women pay the price, losing out on career progression, superannuation and social connection. The data is clear—it's crystal clear: a lack of child care is creating a motherhood penalty that holds women back, and we need to fix it. That's why earlier this year, I hosted two playdate events with The Parenthood, one of Australia's leading advocacy groups for a better and fairer childcare system. These playdates informed The Parenthood's recent report on childcare shortages in regional, rural and remote Australia. The findings, while shocking, were actually quite unsurprising. What I heard at the playdate events in Wangaratta and Wodonga was that our childcare system is not working for families in north-east Victoria.

Amy in Wangaratta is studying to be a nurse. There are not enough childcare places in Wangaratta to accommodate her son. As she told The Parenthood:

Twice a week, I drive 50 kilometres—about 40 minutes each way—to Yarrawonga. I study at the library in Yarrawonga while my son is at daycare, as the driving time and cost would add up if I returned to Wangaratta.

So, day in, day out, Amy is having to make hard decisions about cost and time versus care and connection. Like so many families, Amy is pushed to the brink of burnout because her family cannot access the child care that they need close to where they live.

Hannah, in Wodonga, had attained high standing in her profession. She has a mortgage, and, when she and her husband had their first child, they had prepared as best they could and put themselves on waiting lists when their child was still in the womb. So you can imagine their shock when the time came to go back to work and they could only get care for three days a week across two different centres, and they live in the biggest town in our electorate. Keep in mind that, in Wodonga, there are 2.4 children for every available childcare place. Because extra care cannot be found, Hannah has reduced her work to four days a week, so Hannah's income is reduced by 20 per cent each and every week. She misses out on 20 per cent of her superannuation. She could be passed over when promotions arise. This is why we need a childcare system that works for all of us but especially for mothers.

As I mentioned earlier, I have little reason to trust that, when it comes to implementation of policy in this area, the government will be up to the job. In recent months, I've become aware of a widespread and extremely concerning situation in my electorate of Indi. The fourth round of the Community Child Care Fund saw 75 per cent of funding disappear from Indi. This is funding that supports outside-school-hours care in places like Yackandandah, Whitfield, Greta, Benalla, Moyhu, Mount Beauty and Rutherglen. If you've never heard of those names, look them up. They're tiny, beautiful places. Some of them are quite remote.

Some of these services have received this funding for more than a decade. To lose it so suddenly has come as a shock to principals, families and educators. Indeed, it's sent a shockwave around the whole community because, if we see these services close, parents won't be able to work if they can't find alternative care. Some parents may be forced to move their kids to schools in larger towns where they work, because the small rural school simply won't be an option if they can't provide after-school care. For these schools, then, that risk is existential—lose children, lose teachers, lose viability. It could exacerbate the gender pay gap, because we know it will be disproportionately mothers who will drop those shifts or days at work to provide this care if those OSHC services close. It could also exacerbate broader workforce shortages, with so many parents and caregivers in my electorate working in crucial occupations such as teaching, nursing and psychology. In fact, I've met two psychologists who have waitlists from Wangaratta to Sydney, and they had to drop the amount of work that they can do in order to take care of their children because the availability of child care is simply not there for them.

So I met with the minister as soon as my office discovered the extent of the issue with OSHC, and I subsequently asked the minister in question time what the government is doing to ensure those services don't close in my electorate. I went to see her again today, and I recognise both ministers in the House this afternoon. I've now helped to secure emergency funding for two of these services, and I hope more services will soon receive this desperately needed support. But I do say to you: that's one year of emergency funding. We absolutely need security for these services.

I conclude my remarks by affirming my support for this bill, despite my implementation concerns. It will ensure that early childhood educators and teachers right across Australia will see a wage rise in December. This wage rise—make no mistake—is long overdue, but I am fearful that, at this point, it is only temporary. If this government is serious about fixing workforce shortages in this sector, then it needs to deliver on its commitment to long-term funding solutions, because this bill alone is not enough. It is simply one step among many that we must take if we're to fix our childcare system in Australia.

As a regional Independent member of parliament, I will continue to be a strong advocate for regional families and regional communities. Childcare deserts cannot be allowed to persist in regional communities or any community. I'll continue pushing for childcare systems that work for families across the electorate of Indi, across north-east Victoria and, indeed, across the nation because I believe this nation is well and truly overdue for considerable reform in the early education and care sector, and I support the minister in her efforts to achieve that.

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