Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

This bill, the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Bill 2024, does two really important things: it delivers a long-awaited pay rise for early childhood educators and carers, and it supports families with the cost of living. These are issues that early childhood education and care workers have been campaigning for for many years, and I'm very pleased that, under the Albanese Labor government, they are beginning to get the remuneration and respect that they deserve.

These workers very much deserve our support. The work they do is incredibly important to families, to our economy and of course, most of all, to the kids they care for and educate in their earliest years. On that basis I commend the bill to the chamber.