Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Early Childhood Education. How will Australian families benefit from the Albanese Labor government's investment in the early childhood education and care workforce? Are there other approaches to early childhood education the government has rejected?

Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Spence for his question. I also want to show my appreciation for his ongoing advocacy to help families access early childhood education and care in the electorate of Spence. The Albanese government is focused on delivering cost-of-living relief for Australian families, even though those opposite might not be. We have already made early childhood education and care more affordable for over one million families right across Australia. The ACCC review has told us that that has decreased out-of-pocket costs on average by around 11 per cent for families. And work is underway for us to deliver our vision for a universal early learning system that is affordable, accessible and inclusive.

We know we can't do that without a strong and stable early childhood workforce, and that's why, earlier this month, the Prime Minister announced an historic 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood workers. What this pay rise means is that, by the end of this year, 200,000 early childhood workers across Australia will get at least an extra $100 in their pay packet. By the end of next year, that will be at least $150 a week in their pay packet. Dr Ros Baxter, the CEO of Goodstart, said this:

With this $3.6B commitment the Prime Minister has demonstrated he is serious about delivering a truly universal early education system for all of Australia's children and families—because the first thing a universal system needs is a strong workforce.

We agree with Dr Baxter, and that's why we're taking action to retain workers in the sector and attract workers back into the sector. We know that early educators shape lives and change lives.

We're not only supporting early childhood educators; we're supporting families as well. To be eligible to receive this funding for the wage rise, early childhood education services won't be able to increase their fees by more than 4.4 per cent for the next 12 months. That important condition is putting downward pressure on fees for families. Now, this stands in stark contrast to those opposite. They want to make this all about outdated ideas of modern Australia—a version of Australia straight out of the pages of a 1940s women's home journal. Australia has moved on, and so should they. They should get behind this increase in wages for early childhood educators. They should get behind a modern Australia where a feminised workforce is valued and where early childhood educators are valued and recognised for the important work that they do.