Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister was the last one to speak to this bill, and I would like to address his remarks before I move on to mine. I want to reject his declaration of 10 years of neglect under the coalition in the early childhood education and care portfolio. I'd just remind Australians that he is all about spin and not about substance. The facts are that in that period the coalition took the childcare subsidy from $6.5 billion to around $11 billion a year. We locked in dedicated funding for preschools and kindergartens valued at about $2 billion, which is $500 million over four years. We increased early childhood education and care places by a remarkable 50 per cent over that decade, and this was outlined and highlighted in the recent Productivity Commission report. We increased four-year-olds' enrolment in childhood education and care to a staggering 90 per cent, and, indeed, we increased women's workforce participation, which is so very important for women across our nation. So the coalition are incredibly proud of the work that we did over the last decade in this sector.

Today we're talking about wage increases for about 200,000 early childhood education and care workers. It is not often that I find myself agreeing with the sentiments of those opposite, but what both sides of the chamber can agree on is the incredible role that early childhood educators and teachers play in shaping the lives of our youngest Australians. The coalition values the work of early childhood educators. We understand that, without you, many families couldn't return to work or to study. Unfortunately, not only are families living in areas with little to no access to early learning missing out on support to help them return to work but their children are missing out on the educational benefits of early learning, particularly in the year before school, which I highlighted before.

The coalition has many concerns, however, with this policy. There's the impact on inflation, the administrative and financial burdens placed on small and medium businesses and the fact that this policy comes with a $3.6 billion price tag and delivers not one additional place for families, remembering that it is a taxpayer funded pay rise for the sector. But we won't stand in the way of a pay rise for early childhood educators, and so the coalition will support this legislation today.

However, while we support higher wages for early childhood educators, it would be remiss of me not to call this policy out for what we believe it is, which is a pre-election sweetener—a sugar hit that Labor hope will win them votes ahead of the impending federal election next year. The proof of that is the absolute lack of detail following the announcement of $3.6 billion for those higher wages. The Prime Minister, with his education ministers and, of course, the unions in tow, made this announcement two months ago and then said that further details were to come. I would say that, if this were such a long-term plan of the government's, as they claim it is, then why wouldn't they have all the details sorted already, all the questions answered, before they used early learning as a political prop? That's something that this Labor government really is so adept at doing.

This policy shows that the Albanese government is all about spin and not about substance, as we saw when the Prime Minister spoke to this bill before jumping on a plane and heading off overseas on his Airbus. It's abundantly clear that this Labor government does not have a meaningful plan to restore the Australian way of life.

For over 12 months the early education sector has been going through the multi-employer bargaining process, and it has been the first to do so under this government's legislation. Instead of waiting for their own process to be finalised, they bypassed the independent Fair Work Commission, all at the behest of their union masters. They've traded away billions of dollars for a cap on ECE fees that only lasts for 12 months. They won't say how much the cap will be in the second year of the funding agreement. This is putting further financial pressure on small and medium-sized early childhood education providers, who have already watched their rents and their electricity, gas and food bills skyrocket under this government, like all other Australians around the country.

We know that over 11,000 small businesses across the country have become insolvent in the last 12 months. That is a higher number than ever before. It's a record. It's a record number of small businesses, in the last quarter—that's families and that's jobs—that have gone to the wall. This policy offers no real relief to families who can't afford or can't access early childhood education, remembering that $3.6 billion is a lot of money to spend and not deliver one new place for families, particularly for those in regional Australia. We have thin markets in childcare deserts all across the country, and I've visited a lot of them. I've spoken to families, with their children crying on their laps, who can't go to work and can't pay their bills in a cost-of-living crisis caused by this government.

I think all that will happen with this policy is that it will add to the pressures of the cost of living and of inflation, which will continue to stay higher than it should be and which has already spiralled out of control thanks to the economic mismanagement by the Albanese government. What this government absolutely fails to understand is that as inflation rises, things get more expensive. That's what inflation does. It's the thief in the night that takes away your savings and where you get less for your money. While educators may be thinking that they're getting a pay rise this year and the next—firstly in December and then the following December—all that will happen is that more government spending will equal high inflation which will equal higher bills. Your pay rise, that extra $155 a week that the Prime Minister has promised you, will go straight into paying your higher electricity, gas, water, rent, mortgage—remember, there have been 12 mortgage increases under this government's watch—and grocery bills, and this is under his watch.

The Prime Minister has failed Australians when it comes to this cost-of-living crisis, and they know it. You know it. You know the price of groceries and everything else that you are having to pay at the moment. So educators and the workforce in the ECE sector won't necessarily feel better off because you probably won't be at the end of the day. But the question is: why does the Labor government actually care about it? They are hoping that you will think about it long enough to vote for them at the next election. When that shine wears off, they'll move onto the next announcement and the next policy that they can play politics with—the next new shiny thing.

Don't take my word for it. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the ABS, since Labor came to government in 2022, living costs have soared by over 18 per cent for working families, and the Australian standard of living has gone backwards by nearly 10 per cent. That is for sure. In the more than 12 months since the cheaper childcare policy came into effect, we've seen out-of-pocket costs for ECE rise by a whopping 8.4 per cent. There has been an 8.4 per cent increase in out-of-pocket costs for fees in early learning. Parents know that. Do you still feel like you can trust this Labor government with your money?

The coalition wants to see higher real wages for Australians, including for hard-working early childhood educators, but the key to meaningful wage rises is to bring down inflation and boost productivity, not a temporary taxpayer funded pay rise. We are also concerned that the Labor government is forming a habit of funding taxpayer wage rises for other sectors as well. It cannot become long-term policy where the government in ten years time is funding the wages of multiple sectors, especially when you consider that productivity in the last quarter was 0.1 per cent. It's nearing zero productivity, yet the government is funding workers' pay rises. The budget can't afford it, and neither can Australian taxpayers.

We know that when the two years end and grant funding is no longer available, providers will have to pick up the tab for the increased wages. There is uncertainty around that right now for providers. That is something that they could plan for, but should they opt into this policy with the government, they'll be hamstrung on fee increases and drowning in admin burdens and costs—more and more red tape that this government keeps wrapping small and medium enterprises up in. This makes financial liability for small- and medium-sized providers difficult, because 65 per cent of centre based daycare providers have less than 25 services. So there's a big chunk of long-daycare services that will seriously have a problem with the stress that they will be under. If you can't make money and you can't pay your bills, then you can't reinvest in your business. That's something that both the for-profit part of the sector and the not-for-profit part of the sector do. They reinvest in their business, and they reinvest in their people.

Providers cannot be forced to run their services off the smell of an oily rag. That leads to cutting corners, diminished quality and, at the end of the day, going broke. The last thing we want to see in the sector is a drop in safety and quality standards. That's what happens when centres face being squeezed from both ends. Unfortunately, this policy is going to affect the financial viability of many of the services that I was talking about.

If you've never run a business, then you don't understand all the costs associated with running a business. Those opposite just don't get it. And why don't they get it? Because none of them have ever run a small business. None of them have ever held one job before entering this place. They've all worked in unions. If you google them as they speak, if you google all of them, you will see that most of them have been secretaries of unions or worked for unions. So they simply don't understand the sort of red tape and administrative burden this places on small and medium-sized businesses. They don't understand that it costs them money to apply for these grants. It's going to cost services money to apply. It's going to cost them money to seek legal advice and set up a workplace instrument, which they have to do, because less than 20 per cent—in fact, it's 16 per cent—of the sector currently has an enterprise agreement in place. So centres have to put one in place in order to apply for this pay rise that they then have to pay their educators.

Then it costs money to pay the staff the additional wage from December, in which they will be back-paid. It costs money to cover the additional on-costs of superannuation, of leave entitlements like long service leave and the like, and, for some, of the payroll tax that they'll have to pay to the state. The government is going to cover only a small proportion of that with this bill, and we don't know exactly what that is—10 per cent, 15 per cent or 30 per cent? We don't really know at this point. These are some of the details that the government has not told the sector.

On top of all of those extra costs to your business, the government then turns around and puts a fee cap in place—a fee cap that is significantly less than what most services increase their fees by in July. For the fee cap, they just put some numbers together and said, 'Yeah! Let's just pick a number out. Four point four per cent is what we're going to put in place. It sounds like a good cap.' That's 4.4 per cent, when groceries have increased by 11 per cent, electricity by 22 per cent, gas by 33.8 per cent and rent by 16.3 per cent under this Labor government, on this Prime Minister's watch.

The cherry on top of this whole process is that they are forcing providers to sign an agreement with them for this money, without telling them what the fee cap will be in the second year. This is a greenfield—or a blue sky; whichever one you like to look at—where providers simply don't know what the cap will be, even though they've already signed an agreement for two-year funding for their service, for the wages. Can you imagine? You're just signing up to a legal agreement, being told you'll have a cap on your fees but, 'We don't know what it is yet. We can't tell you what it is or when it will come into play.' That's one of the dodgiest things that I've ever heard, because it's a dodgy Labor policy. But it's something that we've seen over and over from this Labor government, which continues to mislead Australian families and businesses and to leave out the details and to ruin productivity and ruin business. And that's what they do. We've seen it in the numbers.

Now, as a hardworking taxpayer in this country, you would expect accountability and you would expect transparency when it comes to your money. This is your money. And $3.6 billion is an awful lot of money.

Most providers will do what's intended and what's the right thing and pass that funding on to their educators. But there will always be a very small percentage of people who try to game the system, as there always are in every sector. No doubt, some will try with this funding from this special account.

Not only does the government not have any stringent measures in place to ensure all the funding is going to educators and teachers, but also they are putting the onus on educators—on those working across the ECEC sector—to report to the Fair Work Commission if their employer is doing the wrong thing. We don't know how many that will be. Should a provider be found to be doing the wrong thing and misappropriating $3.6 billion of taxpayers' dollars, or part thereof, you would expect them to face criminal charges or perhaps a penalty. That's what you would reasonably expect. Well, no, not in this case. Under this policy, the most Labor will do is to end your grant agreement and send you on your merry way. This is the Albanese government's policy, and it should be on them, not on educators, to ensure that providers are doing the right thing, and it should be this government's responsibility to penalise any provider who misappropriates this funding for anything other than to pay wages to our educators and teachers, who deserve it.

These are taxpayer funds, and taxpayers demand accountability and they demand transparency. I know that they are two very hard words for this Albanese government to understand, given they refuse to be accountable for their actions and they are about as transparent as perhaps a brick wall. But after two years they need to step up and start acting like a Commonwealth government. The Prime Minister needs to start acting like a leader. This Albanese government is a mess, and it's lurching from crisis to crisis. Australian families and businesses deserve better than another three years of Labor.

For all of the reasons I've highlighted above, I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes:

(1) the Government's economic mismanagement and cost-of-living crisis has led to higher wage bills, and higher utility, rent and grocery bills for providers;

(2) the bill will place further administrative burden on providers, particularly small and medium providers;

(3) the bill will put further financial pressure on providers who will have to cover the majority of the on costs, cannot increase their fees and have to pay the wages upfront, whilst receiving reimbursement in arrears;

(4) the Government has done nothing to address child care deserts and thin markets around the country, and this bill will not increase access for parents who currently have none; and

(5) the bill is a one-off sugar hit, which will only increase inflation further contributing to current cost-of-living pressures".

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the reasons this bill is necessary is that, during the previous nine years of the coalition government, child care was an utter failure. Don't take my word for it; take the Productivity Commission report or the Australian Institute of Family Studies report. It found that the Morrison government's vaunted and hailed childcare reforms of 2018 were a complete failure. We ended up with childcare blackspots around the country and a situation where workers in the childcare sector were being paid much less than workers in other sectors and they were bleeding numbers. In addition to that, the reports found that children in some of these centres were having as little as 65c a day spent on their food. It was just appalling. We had a situation where the sector was in crisis, and the reforms that the Morrison government put in in 2018 were a complete failure. That's what the Australian Institute of Family Studies found, and it's what the Productivity Commission found.

The member for Moncrieff was talking about inflation. Inflation is down to 2.7 per cent. It was as high as eight per cent when those opposite were in government. They've got an amendment here to this particular bill, and it talks about cost-of-living relief. You can't find a measure that this government wants to bring in that they won't oppose. For example, when it comes to housing, they'll oppose our housing bills. When it came to energy relief, they opposed that. Now, grudgingly, they claim they'll support this particular bill before the chamber today. But, during nine years of the coalition government and three prime ministers and multiple spokespeople and ministers in the area of early child care, did they ever do anything like this? No, not at all. If you listened to the shadow minister's speech, you'd think they're opposing this bill. They cannot but whinge and carp and moan and complain about this bill. Yet, in the end, they'll vote for it. They'll vote for it in the end.

This particular piece of legislation is absolutely crucial. It was part of what we took to the last election. The difference between us and them is that we actually value the work of those people working in the early childhood education and care sector, because we see it as education. Those opposite claim they value the work they do, but they won't pay them for their value. They didn't do it for nine years. Even today they carp and moan and complain about the fact that we're proposing this legislation and putting the bill before the chamber with the funding beside it. We are doing that because we trust the early childhood education and care sector and we know parents trust those educators to educate their children. We know the sector is important for productivity and for female and male participation in the workforce.

We think our early educators have one of the most important jobs imaginable, which is to educate our young people. We think it's absolutely critical. They deserve much more than our thanks. Those opposite can barely give them thanks. They deserve our respect, and they deserve to be paid properly and justly. That's what this legislation, the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Bill 2024, is about. The bill is about making sure those educators are fairly paid, and it delivers on our announcement on 8 August to deliver a wage increase to early childhood and care educators. It's about addressing workforce shortages. That's why they had workforce shortages—because people weren't being paid properly. We're increasing their wages to get people into the sector and to incentivise them.

The previous speaker talked about businesses in the market. I ran a business for 20 years before I came to this place. I know a bit about supply and demand and about how to get people to work for you. You pay them appropriately, fairly and justly, and they'll work for you. They'll take the job. That's what we're trying to do here today. Those opposite had nine years to do what we're doing today. Even now, they can only grudgingly support the legislation. We're funding a 15 per cent wage increase for early childhood education and care workers to get wages moving for them in the sector. Those opposite claim they want wages to be higher, so why did they not support any minimum wage increase for the 2.6 million Australians on the lowest pay in the country? Why could they not bring themselves, at any stage during nine years, to support a wage rise for the lowest-paid workers? Why not? Because they fundamentally don't value their work. If they valued their work, they would've supported wage rises.

There are some sectors that they support: the captains of industry and big business and entrepreneurs. They think they're marvellous, despite the subsidies and corporate assistance that they get from the taxpayers of the country. But they fundamentally don't value those who work in aged care, child care and the retail sector. They don't. Look at what they do—not at the platitudes and mousy words they give in this chamber today. Look at what they did during nine years. It takes a Labor government to do things. I say to those people who claim you don't need Labor governments: we need Labor governments from time to time in this country for Medicare, for the age pension, for superannuation, for aged-care reform, for childcare reform and for better wages for the lowest-paid workers in the country.

It goes to show that those opposite don't value the incomes of the low paid, because their stage 3 tax cuts didn't have people under $45,000 getting tax cuts; it took us to do that. Childcare workers in this sector got a tax cut under Labor. Those opposite wanted an election over it. We didn't want an election over it; we just wanted to make sure we legislated to get them the tax cuts that they need and deserve and to look after the lowest-paid workers in the country. That's also the case for the bill before the chamber. Those were the tax bills that those opposite wanted an election over.

Labor need to be in power to help the poor, the weak and the oppressed, in the biblical sense. But we want to make sure that people who are middle-income families, people on low incomes and people in the regions get the support they need. I can't understand the Nationals—the LNP in Queensland and the Nationals in regional areas—not standing up for people in the regions in those areas, because it's in the regions where the deserts and the black spots are when it comes to child care. What did the Nationals do over there? They stood on the ministerial leather over here but did nothing to help in the black spots for nine years. They talk about black spot funding. Well, they can't fund infrastructure in the regions at all. Then they whinge and moan and carp about it when we don't do what they want us to do. They'll privatise everything with the Tories and the Liberals if they get a chance—like the NBN—but they won't stand up for childcare workers in the regions. The National Party, the ones in regional Queensland, didn't in nine years. They are the ones that will say that they're great lions in their communities, but in here they're lambs. That's what will happen.

This legislation is absolutely critical to making sure we get people into the sector. I'm really proud and pleased to support this Labor government initiative. We're providing access to quality education because it's absolutely crucial. Wage increases are deserved and needed. It's an important step in the government's reforms in the whole sector. It builds on the cheaper child care changes we've already made. It will be phased in over two years, with a 10 per cent increase from December 2024 and a further five per cent increase in December 2025. It means someone who's an educator in the sector and paid at the award rate—and many of them are—will receive a pay rise of at least $103 per week, increasing to at least $155 a week from December 2025. That's around $7,800 a year. The Labor government is doing this. Those opposite didn't do it once—not once—during the nine years they were on this side of the chamber.

A typical early childhood education teacher will receive an additional $166 a week from December this year, increasing to $249 from December next year. Workers in this sector are some of the most important workers in the country and they deserve to be paid. These people deserve to be paid. This $3.6 billion investment from the government—grudgingly accepted by those opposite, if you listen to their shadow minister grudgingly talking about it—recognises the vitality of our early childhood educators. They are the ones who are preparing kids for school. Those opposite talk about productivity all the time. We talk about it quite regularly as well. If you want to make sure kids succeed at primary school, at secondary school and in tertiary education, whether it's TAFE or university, get the kids ready. Educate them. Those opposite think it's child care. It's more than child care; it's early childhood education.

To be eligible to receive this funding for wage increases, the services won't be able to increase their fees by more than 4.4 per cent over the next 12 months. The grant guidelines set the limit at 4.4 per cent in the year from 8 August 2024, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics will develop a new cost index to guide limits on increases in future years. This is an important affordability condition that will keep downward pressure on fees for families. That is informed by the work the ACCC has been doing—a combination of the wage price index and the consumer price index. Funding must be passed on in full to employees through increased wages. That condition will be set out in a legally enforceable agreement between the Department of Education and providers. We will also set a cap for the following 12 months based on the work that the ABS will do. Capping fee increases provides certainty to families and will keep a lid on fee growth. It's a win for workers and a win for families, and it will help ease cost-of-living pressures—a double dividend.

Quality, affordable early education prepares kids for a great start in life. It lays the foundation for our nation's future economic success. We know that 90 per cent of brain development occurs in the first five years of life, so it's critical that we get this early stage of life kickstarted and get these kids ready for success. US research indicates that if a child goes to preschool they're 50 per cent more likely to go to college or university and go on to a good job.

Here in Australia the Grattan Institute has highlighted how increasing childcare subsidies will increase GDP and productivity from a boost to workforce participation and result in higher lifetime earnings for the typical Australian mother. Accessible and affordable early education and learning is critical for supporting all parents, but particularly women, to have a choice when it comes to undertaking study, re-entering the workforce or increasing their hours of work. Indeed, our cheaper childcare reforms are really grounded in this work by the Grattan Institute, and it's no surprise that the think tank has endorsed Labor's policy. But to make it work we need a boost to the early childhood education workforce. In fact, the Productivity Commission report on the future of Australia's early childhood education and care system, released last month, says one of the first things we need to do to build a bigger and better early education system is to build a bigger workforce. Since we came into government, the number of workers in the sector has grown by more than 30,000, but we need more. We're seeing providers delay expansion plans, close rooms and limit enrolments because they can't find staff. The impact on the availability of early childhood education and care is critical.

Fair wages for some of the most important workers in the country are critical to reversing the attrition and the growing workforce shortage issues. This commitment by this government will help retain our existing early childhood educators—predominantly women, I might add—and attract new employees. We hope it will encourage more people to stay, more people to come back and more people to think about becoming early educators. Having more educators means more children and more parents can benefit from the life-changing work they do.

The wage justice bill encourages good-faith bargaining and the making of enterprise agreements in the early childhood education and care sector. I thank all those people who got behind this bill and the campaign that has been run. In the last few months, I've visited childcare services in some of the new areas in my electorate—Springfield, Ripley and Redbank Plains—and some of the more established suburbs, like Bundamba and Karalee. The feedback I've got is that this is a good announcement and good policy. The families and the educators welcome it.

We know that families are constantly living with the pressures of life—not just the pressures of family life but the cost-of-living pressures. So this legislation is absolutely crucial. It's urgent. The consultation and stakeholder feedback shows that it's important. I thank the United Workers Union, the Australian Education Union, the Independent Education Union, Goodstart, the Australian Childcare Alliance and so many others for the work they've done. I thank the Minderoo Foundation, Thrive by Five and all who've come out and endorsed this reform. I commend the legislation to the chamber.

Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was drawn to speak on this bill because child care is a serious issue in my electorate of Mallee. I note the title of this bill: Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Bill 2024. Justice is important to people on both sides of this House. There is no question about that. But I think that we look through different prisms.

My electorate is absolutely regional. I have 72 towns in my electorate, many—in fact, I would go so far as to say most—without child care. So, when we're talking about subsidies and wage rises, yes, there is a place for those things, but, when you don't have a childcare centre and a mother or a father has to drive two hours down the road to take their child to childcare before they can go to work and then they have to do a return trip at the end of the day, you are asking an immense amount from people who are already working their butts off. It is creating such stress in my electorate. We have what are called childcare deserts, and there is not a lot in this bill that addresses that at all. I would draw the House's attention to that.

I note that there's $3.6 billion for wages and that people who are earning $530,000 per annum combined can get those subsidies. I don't know on which planet that is a reasonable suggestion, but that's what's going through this House. However, for those where there is no childcare, there are no subsidies coming their way, because they can't put their child into child care and work. This is not justice; this is injustice. This issue needs to be addressed by the House and by this government.

In Hopetoun, one of the towns in my electorate, I've been working with the Yarriambiack Shire Council for the last few years, since Uniting closed their service. I'm hopeful that the situation will be resolved shortly. I understand the council is working with another childcare provider, Emerge, and we're hoping that the workforce will emerge so that these children can attend the childcare centre. Uniting's closure in Hopetoun left 15 to 20 families in a difficult situation.

Heather, from Beulah, came to me. She is the major income earner in her family. Heather loves her town of Beulah and wants to stay. She doesn't want to go back to the city to raise her children. The town has lost its hotel and its supermarket, and the lack of child care in Hopetoun means people are now having to travel even further to get child care. Another mother from Hopetoun wrote to me in capital letters—on social media, that's the equivalent of yelling—saying, 'We need child care in Hopetoun,' followed by, 'Please, please, please.' I wonder how many urban parents are having to beg their local member for a childcare centre. She noted that mothers had to stop working or cut back on hours to help others look after their children so they can go to work. Is this justice? I don't think so.

Earlier this year some grandparents from Edenhope raised with me the importance of child care, saying it's difficult to get places. Many young women want to work, but they just can't find a childcare place. Lisa lives in Maryborough. She wrote to me in November about the huge impact the cost of living is having on her. She was 'extremely stressed out' at the time as she was on maternity leave and facing 'massive childcare shortages'. Lisa wrote to me:

The council and state Labor government aren't taking this seriously … What has this Labor government done so far? Nothing!

Lisa says that her regional centre of Maryborough has a population of around 8,000 people and has only two childcare centres, each with 75 places, whereas Horsham, with a population of over 20,000 people, has eight centres. Lisa complained that it's hard to retain workers in Maryborough with no further child care available.

Last weekend I was in Murtoa for Murtoa's Big Weekend. I had the pleasure of catching up with Dr Kendra Clegg, who has been working with me for the last couple of years on addressing the desperate need for child care in Murtoa. She told me that the Murtoa model of integrating early years learning with, in this instance, the Murtoa College is a model that could potentially be used elsewhere in regional Victoria and regional Australia to address childcare shortages. A happy outcome of the new centre—which is opening next year, as I understand it—is that several senior students want to begin certificate III studies in early years education. I would hope they would end up working locally to support children and families in Murtoa in early childhood education, which the state is funding.

I would note that this bill isn't necessary for the grant funding to be provided. The grant could have been provided through existing legislative powers. The bill doesn't even set the wage increase or how much providers will be paid to cover it. The bill has not yet been through the Senate, where the Greens have signalled they want more—more petrol on the inflation bonfire. The government's spending commitment is only for the first two years of the wage increase. The cost will then go to the providers.

This bill is a political posturing move from the Albanese government, and I note there is a concurrent Senate inquiry process—even though the bill is before the House—scheduled to conclude by 30 October, in time for the resumption of sittings in November. The shadow minister for early childhood education, who spoke earlier, is coming to my electorate of Mallee to see the childcare desert, which no-one from Labor has bothered to look at. She told the House in August, and it bears repeating now:

The sector tells me a 10 per cent wage increase usually means a seven per cent fee increase.

…   …   …

The biggest farce with this policy is that Labor think they can inject $3.6 billion—

of taxpayers' money—

into the sector and keep fees down using a cap … there's a real chance that services already paying staff 10 or 15 per cent above the award wage won't sign onto this. They'll pay their staff a little bit more and then they'll just increase their prices anyway, and that will land in families' laps. Even if some services keep fees down this year and next year, families will still be hit with eye-watering bills when the government funding dries up because providers will then be forced to pick up the wages tab and to do that they will have to increase their fees.

…   …   …

A union heavily involved in the early learning sector is back to its old tricks, telling educators they'll only get this pay rise if they are a member of the union. It's completely untrue, it's misleading and it's despicable behaviour from a union heavily associated with those opposite.

Of course, the economically illiterate Greens have already stated that they want this wage increase to be a 25 per cent increase.

Debate interrupted.