Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Early childhood education in Australia is a system in crisis and requires urgent attention and reform. The government has proposed the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Bill 2024 in the hope that it can address one of the key issues of our childcare system—that is, acute workforce shortages. The Greens welcome Labor's long-overdue recognition of the importance of early childhood educators, and we congratulate the unions and the sector for their hard-fought advocacy over many years that has shone a spotlight on wage justice for early educators.

This bill is a critical first step, but the government can and must go further. For too long educators have been underpaid and undervalued. They are overworked and burnt out and, as a result, they are leaving the industry in droves. Childcare centres are struggling to fill thousands of educator roles because educators have been forced to find better-paid jobs elsewhere. Let's be clear: educators can't afford to be educators. Australia desperately needs a workforce strategy that continues to build capacity.

So how should a government attract workers to an industry where people are leaving in droves? A decent wage that they can actually live off is a good start, as is ensuring pay parity with educators in primary and secondary schools. These aren't radical propositions. To quote a witness at the wage justice bill inquiry:

It's just not satisfactory that someone can have a degree or a diploma qualification and be delivering education, like their peers in schools, and not be paid at an equal rate.

That was Elizabeth Death, CEO of ELACCA, who celebrated their 10th birthday today. One witness said:

… a teacher is a teacher, whether they work in a school or work in an early childhood centre. They should be paid appropriate professional wages, and there shouldn't be a disparity between the wages paid across sectors.

That was Samantha Page, the CEO of Early Childhood Australia.

Early childhood educators and the unions have fought long and hard for a 25 per cent pay rise, and it's thanks to their tireless efforts that the government is finally starting to value the essential work they do, the work that—let's be frank—mostly women do. Ninety-seven per cent of the early childhood education workforce are women. They do the critical work of educating our kids yet continue to be paid well below other educators at the same or similar levels of responsibility and skills—and with fewer conditions in many cases. Improving early childhood educators' pay is critical to addressing the gender pay gap.

Labor has introduced a bill that would create a special account to fund grants to early childhood education and care providers, who can opt to support a wage increase of 15 per cent for their workers for a limited period of only two years. Quite clearly, a 15 per cent pay bump falls well short of what our educators deserve, what unions in the sector have been calling for and what would bring early childhood educators closer to pay parity with primary and secondary schools. This is a workforce that performs the critical role of educating and caring for our kids in those crucial early years. It is a workforce that is overwhelmingly comprised of women, who continue to take home less than two-thirds of the average weekly adult wage. Even with the government's proposed 15 per cent pay bump, early childhood educators will still be underpaid. While Labor grandstand about their decision to lift wages by 15 per cent, the stark reality is that, even with the pay rise, it would take an educator 31 years to save for a home deposit on an average house—31 years.

During the inquiry into this bill, we heard from witnesses in regional Australia about the challenges of attracting educators due to the lack of affordable and available housing, rising rents and poor conditions across the sector.

We heard that the combined effect of low wages and the housing crisis is only exacerbating the issue of childcare deserts across this country. As one witness, the Isolated Children's Parents Association of Australia, told the wage justice inquiry, rural and remote settings require more than a 15 per cent increase to rectify staffing shortages and to meet the needs of attracting and retaining early childhood education staff to rural and remote areas.

If the government really wants to stop educators from leaving in droves, it must ensure they're paid enough and have suitable workplace conditions to stay. That is why I foreshadow that the Greens will move a Committee of the Whole amendment to increase the worker retention grant from 15 to 25 per cent. We're calling on Labor to give early-years educators the 25 per cent pay rise they deserve and they've been calling for.

Another significant flaw in this bill is that it makes no guarantee of a pay rise beyond June 2028, which has service providers scratching their heads about what happens after that date. While Labor is calling it a pay rise, as it stands it's actually only a two-year grant, or a pay bump. At the inquiry into this bill, I along with the government heard witness after witness provide evidence of the uncertainty over who will cover the costs once the government grant ends. Will it be providers, will it be parents or will it be the government? Why hasn't Labor met union and sector demands for a 25 per cent pay increase and provided certainty beyond June 2028? Will providers make up the shortfall afterwards, or will they pass those costs on to sustain the 15 per cent increase?

This is a major concern right across the sector. As the CEO of ELACCA explained at the wage justice inquiry, it can take many years to build the capacity of a service to deliver really high quality education and care. We need that longevity of our workforce. They need the confirmation that they will be valued and paid much longer than just two years into the future. Another witness, G8, said:

… that lack of certainty was placing us in the difficult position … after two years, of either having to increase our fees to sustain the increased wage costs or—worst-case scenario … reduce the pay rates of our educators to award levels.

Can you imagine that—giving a pay bump to your staff, only to take it back after two years? Where's the wage justice in that?

The Greens want to guarantee that early-childhood educators have well-paid, secure jobs. We want to ensure a sustainable workforce to fill the gaps in childcare deserts. In October I wrote to Labor ministers Jason Clare and Anne Aly, urging them to amend the sunset provision of this bill, to commit to fully funding the educator pay rise beyond 30 June 2028 and to extend it until the Fair Work Commission's decision is operational. Unfortunately, the government's response provided no assurance of funding the pay bump beyond the sunset clause.

This bill was a chance to fill the childcare desert gaps. It was a chance to give long-overdue recognition of our underpaid and overworked workforce. Sadly, this bill falls short. That is why I move the Greens second reading amendment, standing in my name, for the government to fully fund the Fair Work Commission's feminised industry decision and ensure educators get the pay rise beyond the two-year grant period:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate calls on the Government to:

ensure that early childhood education and care is universal, free and high-quality across Australia; and

commit to fully funding the outcomes of the Fair Work Commission's gender pay equity research project, including ensuring that educators continue to receive funded pay rises after the 2-year period of the grant program proposed in this bill".

There's no denying that paying educators a decent wage is critical to fixing Australia's early-years education system and closing the gender gap, but so is providing free early-years education, just like primary and secondary schools. Research shows that women in families with children under the age of five have the lowest levels of labour force participation amongst people of prime working age. Many of these women would love to re-engage with work but say caring for children is the main barrier to them re-entering the job market.

Free early-years education makes economic sense. It would allow more parents the chance to return to work, which would increase women's workforce participation and boost Australia's economy. We already know this to be true from the brief moment during COVID when the Morrison government made early child care free. It helped reduce total inflation by over one per cent for that quarter.

Recent research suggests that reforming early-childhood education in Australia to include low-cost or free child care would help increase the size of the economy by $168 billion and allow the government to collect an additional $48 billion in revenue. It sounds like a no-brainer, so why won't the government fully invest in free early-years education? We know that it would boost economic productivity and ease the cost-of-living crisis felt across this country.

That is why I moved the second reading amendment standing in my name to ensure that early-childhood education and care is universal, free and high quality across Australia. I call on Labor to seize this moment to work with the Greens to ensure all children have access to early-childhood education and women have the opportunity to work. Early-childhood educators have fought long and hard for a well-deserved pay rise. It is absolutely clear that this bill is a step in the right direction, but it simply doesn't go far enough. Labor will not fix our broken system with half-hearted measures. If we want high-quality, universal early-years education and care, we must invest in a sustainable workforce and fully invest in our educators. Labor has made a small first step towards recognising educators aren't paid enough, and ow it must commit to going further. Labor must rise to this occasion and pay our educators what they deserve for doing the most important work imaginable: educating and caring for our children.

The Greens have a vision for an equitable and inclusive early-years education workforce. We want to work with Labor to make this transformative change needed to fix our early-years education system and close the gender pay gap. We will remain willing to work together with the government to seize upon the social and economic opportunities of reforming early-childhood education and care in Australia. Let's fix our early-years education system to create one that we can be truly proud of that recognises the extraordinary work of this largely feminised industry of educators and that's universal, high-quality, and accessible. Every child and every family deserves an education.