Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

What we know is that, when it comes to early childhood educators, we inherited a significant mess and a lack of a plan from the previous government. The National Skills Commission repeatedly told the previous government that over 20,000 educators would be needed for the next few years, and the previous government took no action. What we're doing is delivering more university places, teacher bursaries and fee-free TAFE places for early childhood education. That will be a real focus for us in terms of rebuilding the TAFE sector.

We also supported the Fair Work Commission's minimum wage increase, which resulted in a 4.6 per cent pay rise for around 113,000 early childhood educators. I believe the current opposition opposed that wage increase. We are legislating to remove unnecessary limitations on access to multi-employer agreements, which has resulted in some of the highest paid early childhood educators in the country. In Victoria, 70 centres combined in pay negotiations and, as a result, are paid at least 16 per cent above the award. These centres still had to register the agreement 70 times, and this is the kind of thing that multi-employer bargaining reform will make easier. We're strengthening the ability of the Fair Work Commission to order pay increases for low-paid workers in female dominated industries.

Given the immediate challenge that we're confronting, migration has to be part of the mix as well. That is why we have increased the number of permanent migration visas available this financial year from 160,000 to 195,000. We're also looking at more substantial migration reform next year, with a comprehensive review due by the end of February. Additionally, National Cabinet has tasked the Minister for Education and the Minister for Early Childhood Education with identifying further opportunities for collaboration to address workforce shortages. That work is underway now to achieve the changes that we need to ensure that we have the workforce in the future.