Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It certainly does seem that Dorothy has, in fact, tapped her shoes in the Senate today with comments from those on the government benches that would send Australian women right back to the 1950s, where apparently this government believes they belong. This is a government that is no friend of the women of Australia. The government's snapback is apparently starting even earlier than expected and it is a snapback that will hurt the women of Australia.

Only on Friday did the Prime Minister guarantee that workers would be able to count on JobKeeper payments until September. Then three days later, on Monday, he announced that JobKeeper would, in fact, end for 120,000 early childhood educators. The Prime Minister's commitment did not even last the long weekend. And now they've not ruled out making further adjustments to the JobKeeper program. After that backflip on Monday further adjustments could mean anything. It could mean removing more workers from the scheme, because you cannot trust a word that this government says. Are they really on the side of Australian working women? Are they really on the side of the Australian workforce? They've already excluded millions of casuals and temporary migrant workers from JobKeeper. We have Liberal members of parliament calling for an early snapback day after day. Now it's early childhood educators. Who is next? Who is next in the government's sights?

Early childhood educators have absolutely been on the frontlines of this crisis. They are essential workers who have been absolutely critical in allowing other essential workers to stay at work. To reward them by being the first to have support withdrawn is an absolute slap in the face to those women workers of Australia. Ninety-seven per cent of early childhood educators are women and they have done absolutely everything that this government and this country have asked of them over the past few months. They've turned up to work when others have stayed home to stay safe. They've done that with absolutely no ability to practice social distancing when educating—yes, educating—small children. They've been deemed to be essential except in their pay packets where, of course, they remain some of the lowest paid working people in Australia, exactly because of the types of attitudes that we've heard from the government benches today about their incredibly important and essential work.

This is a group of people that has faced huge uncertainty about the future of their jobs and the future of their sector and now they are the first to be booted off the JobKeeper payments by this government, who just said that no-one would be kicked off before September. What a way to thank the early childhood educators of Australia. Now, right when we are in the middle of a crisis, the government is ending free child care as well. Ending both the free early childhood education program and JobKeeper for early childhood educators is going to cause huge problems for so many Australian women and so many families. Returning to unaffordable child care and removing access is going to make the return to work that much more difficult than it has been already for so many working families. At a time when we are in recession, when parents need to be able to return to work and when households are struggling, how will ending the free childcare package help? We know that it won't. Research published this week says that ending the childcare rescue package early is going to force parents in 60 per cent of households to reduce work. And, in the majority of cases, of course, it's going to be women who will have to stop work or cut back on work.

So this government is delivering a triple blow to the women of Australia. First, three days after guaranteeing JobKeeper, the government has ripped it out of the hands of almost 120,000 women educators. At the same time, the government ends free child care at a time of massive hardship and recession when women need to be able to work. This government does not have the backs of Australia's working women.

Question agreed to.