Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I want to make a few comments on the amendments that the coalition have put up—Senator Duniam's amendments. First up, I must say it's pretty rich for the Liberals and the Nationals to stand up here and suddenly start caring about early childhood education and learning when it was their government that took early childhood educators off JobKeeper. That was the first sector they took off JobKeeper, showing their disrespect for the sector and the people who work in it. Also, in the ten years they were in government, costs for early childhood education and care became the most expensive in the world. Affordability and accessibility did not improve one single bit. If you want to talk about hypocrisy, let's talk about that.

Having said that, the Greens will support the amendments before us. They are about accountability. As Senator David Pocock said earlier, we make these changes here and then we forget about them. These amendments are about making sure the changes that are made today and that come into effect in July next year are changes that actually have an impact. If not, then things will need to be changed. What's being proposed in these amendments is a targeted review on the impact of this bill, in particular. Given the concerns we have had about some of the provisions of the bill in terms of how it will meet what is needed to be met, such as more places and wage rises and making sure educators are available for those places, I think this review is pretty appropriate. There is no reason why a targeted review can't take place alongside the more expansive reviews the government is intending on doing anyway, like the ACCC and the Productivity Commission reviews. The Greens, on principle, will be supporting these amendments.