Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

():  My question is to the Minister for Education. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to boost wages of early childhood workers and keep prices down for families, and what has been the response?

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

I thank my friend the cracking member for Cunningham for her question. Childcare workers and early educators are some of the most important workers in this country and some of the most underpaid. They deserve a pay rise. That's what this government is doing—a 15 per cent pay rise. That means more than 100 bucks extra each week from this December and a pay rise of about 150 bucks from next December. All up, that's a pay rise of about $7,800 a year for more than 200,000 Australian workers. Tomorrow, I'll introduce legislation to make that happen. That's on top of the tax cut that our early educators got a couple of months ago, a tax cut of more than $1,100. That's more money in the pockets of some of our lowest paid workers because of this Prime Minister and because of this government. They are pay rises and tax cuts that wouldn't have happened if the Liberal Party had their way.

We're not only delivering pay rises and tax cuts but also putting in place a cap on childcare fees at 4.4 per cent to keep prices down for parents. Under the Liberals, childcare fees went up by a whopping 49 per cent—double the OECD average. The changes that we put into place last year have already cut the cost of child care for more than a million Australian families, and this is the next step: a pay rise for workers and a cap to keep prices down for more than a million Australian families.

Here's just a sample of the reaction. Julie Price from the Community Child Care Association said this will be life changing. Georgie Dent from The Parenthood said this is historic. Lisa Bonza, an early educator who's been working in early education for more than 20 years, said this is monumental. From the Liberal Party there's been silence. But they can't be silent forever. The last time we introduced legislation to increase the wages of early educators, they didn't just oppose it, and they didn't just vote against it; they said in this place that they condemn it. And in the Senate they described it as—I'm telling the truth!—an absolute disgrace.

Now, we know the Liberal Party was born in the 1940s. The problem is: they're still there, and their policies are still there. Every time we try to lift the wages or cut the taxes of people on low incomes, they stand against it. It's time the Liberal Party made their way to the 21st century and support people who do some of the most important work in this country and back this bill when I— (Time expired)