David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I start by saying how welcome the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Cheaper Child Care) Bill 2022 is. Improving access to more affordable early childhood education has so many upsides for people: for families in our communities, for our communities and for society more broadly. There are upsides for children in terms of their learning and development as well as their socialisation skills. There are upsides for parents because it will enable a significant increase in workforce participation. And, of course, there are flow-on upsides in terms of the economic benefits and productivity improvement from this.

As the minister noted in his second reading speech, some 1.26 million families are estimated to benefit from this, with just over 23,000 of them here in the ACT. Treasury estimates that this bill will increase the hours worked by women with young children by up to 1.4 million hours per week in 2023-24. In the midst of a tight labour market and the high cost of living, the extra work, coupled with lower costs for early childhood education, will make a big difference.

Of course, with better access comes higher demand, as pointed out by Senator O'Sullivan. In many areas, waitlists are long and workforce shortages are acute. There is huge concern across the sector that, with the welcome and long-overdue increases to pay rates in the residential aged-care sector, competition for early childhood educators will only become more acute.

With this legislation, clearly, the need for early childhood educators to receive a pay rise is important. It is crucial. It is urgent. As people in the ACT have said to me, you can earn more working at Bunnings than educating and caring for the next generation of Australians. We need to change that urgently. The government's proposed industrial relations changes to what is proposed to be the supported bargaining stream—as I've told the government, this is the part of the legislation that has my full support—aims to do that, but we need to do more. If there is to be an increase in early childhood educator salaries, the government needs to come to the table and fund it. It also needs to ensure that taxpayer funded increases are flowing through to workers and not simply being absorbed as profits.

I'm proposing a number of amendments to this bill. I would like to thank the government, specifically Minister Clare and his team, for their open and constructive approach to considering the changes to the bill. The first change I'm proposing is to the name of the bill. I note that Senator Faruqi has also raised this issue. Pay rises for early childhood educators are essential, but there is more to recognising and valuing the critical work they do than just money. Language is important and influences the way we think and behave. That's why I support calls from the sector to amend the name of this bill to be about providing more affordable early childhood education and care. After talking to early childhood educators, there is a lack of recognition for the work that is done in this sector. I hope that this is something that will begin to address this and begin to place more value on the important work that early childhood educators are doing. There are few things more important than playing a role in shaping the lives of children.

It's also important to recognise the way that centres operate and the valuable roles different staff play. After talking to the government, I'm pleased that the government has agreed to expand the scope of the optional discount that can be offered on fees to the children of educators working in centres to include cooks. This bill is a really important step forward, but there's more work to be done in pursuing this reform, especially when it comes to improving access for disadvantaged children, reviewing the activity test and sector workforce requirements.

The government has committed to tasking the Productivity Commission with undertaking a comprehensive review of these issues and the sector more broadly. I believe this will serve a more constructive material outcome than a statutory review for this particular piece of legislation. I note concerns about the lack of modelling and the need for more thorough modelling, and particularly how important reviewing the legislation is to ensure that it's doing what it sets out to do. I can't think of too many other places where you simply try to deal with an issue, set it, and then largely forget about it. We need to be actively reviewing, monitoring, and, when needed, amending and ensuring that we are heading down the right path.

Delivering the aim of implementing a universal 90 per cent subsidy for all families is a worthy goal. I look forward to supporting the government's effort to implement this on behalf of the people of the ACT.