Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Stewart. I'm pleased to say that access to quality early childhood education and care is an investment with a triple dividend. More affordable early childhood education and care gives families the opportunity to participate in the workforce. This could be primary carers, usually women, having the opportunity to take up employment or giving them the opportunity to increase the number of days they work each week. Children having greater access to quality early childhood education and care gives them learning and development opportunities. These opportunities are critical to help equip them for life and learning, giving them solid foundations to build on when they start school. Investing in early childhood education and care is also an investment in the economy, supporting families to work and children to learn has immediate and long-term implications for our prosperity and productivity as a nation.

I think we were all concerned when we read the reports in the last term of parliament to see that an unnamed coalition MP had described working women as 'outsourcing parenting'. That is not the view of the Albanese government. We support parents' right to work, if that is what they would want to do, and we will back them with financial support. (Time expired)