Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to start today by acknowledging the presence in the gallery a few minutes ago of the Glencore workers. These workers have been locked out their workplace for over 200 days—in fact, it's now almost the longest lockout in Australia's history. Why? Because their employer refused to accept the result of an enterprise bargaining agreement. They voted 164 against and 11 for accepting the enterprise agreement and, for that, they've been locked out.

But that's not really why I want to mention them today. I want my tributes on the Hansard because I was truly shocked yesterday when a senior member of the Turnbull government, Mr Dutton, called those workers out in this place and accused them of being thugs. He welcomed them to the House of Representatives gallery by saying, 'You're the workers who break people's arms on building sites in this country.' I can't believe that Mr Turnbull hasn't apologised, that there's been absolute silence from the government on what was an absolute attack on workers in this country, and I am absolutely ashamed. As a Labor senator, I unreservedly acknowledge their struggle and their fight. I'm ashamed that they were attacked so blatantly by a senior member of the Turnbull government.

But today I want to focus on another group of workers. I want to talk about women workers. Over the 20 years to 2016, the gender pay gap between men and women in Australia hovered between 15 and 19 per cent. In my own state of Western Australia, it's the highest in the country—the pay gap between men and women sits at 23 per cent. During that same period, women's educational attainment has steadily risen. The proportion of women with bachelor's degrees or above rose from just under 13 per cent in 1996 to 28 per cent in 2016. In fact, since 1998 more women than men have earned a bachelor's degree or higher qualification. However, what those women have learned, sadly, is that getting a better education has had little impact on the gender pay gap, and on their pay packets in particular.

Today I want to focus on a significantly underpaid part of that workforce: early childhood education professionals. Yesterday the Fair Work Commission threw out a four-year fight by United Voice and other education unions to achieve some fairness for those early childhood education professionals, to redress the pay gap between men and women where work is of an equal value. The Fair Work Commission didn't hear directly from early childhood professionals, so I want to put on the Hansard the voice of one of those low-paid professionals. I want their voice to resonate in this place as it didn't have the opportunity to resonate at Fair Work Australia. This is what Jess wanted to say to Fair Work Australia:

I'm an early childhood educator. And like thousands of other educators, in a week from now I will walk off the job. This is why.

Today, together with my team, I looked after 10 children who are all about 18 months old. They're physically active, so it's up to us to create an environment that helps develop their bodies and their brains. Gross motor, balance, coordination and spatial awareness as well as maintaining their safety are vital right now.

Jess is also expected to communicate daily with parents and to keep records in a very professional manner, just as we would expect being entrusted with the lives of such young children.

Eighteen months is also when children are navigating their relationships with each other, so our job is to ensure their interactions are positive and respectful.

I experience first hand how educating and caring for children positively impacts their future. This is why I went to university. I'm enthusiastic about each child's progress and I love what I do.

But we're not paid our worth and our passion doesn't pay the bills.

Incredibly, qualified educators earn as little as $21 an hour to shape the minds of Australia's next generation—our future doctors, lawyers and prime ministers. On our wages we will never own a home or have any financial security.

This injustice is happening for one reason. Because 97% of us are female. It's seen as "women's work" and it's treated like "babysitting" (but paid even less).

We are fed up. We are tired of asking nicely. Now, we are demanding.

I am walking off the job to show Malcolm Turnbull that I will not be treated like a doormat—not anymore. It's time we are paid like the professionals we are.

Australia would grind to a halt without us. If that's what it takes. That's what we'll do.

United Voice, my union—I'm still a member today and I'm a very proud member—says that the government has once again let early childhood educators down. Earlier this week, the Minister for Education and Training, Simon Birmingham, told early childhood educators that demands for equal pay would be settled through the Fair Work Commission. Helen Gibbons, the assistant national secretary of United Voice, which is the union for early childhood educators across this country, said:

The Fair Work Commission has failed us. They failed to hear from a single educator about what it’s like to live on half the minimum wage.

Ms Gibbons went on to say:

Our case was made even more difficult by the government refusing to support the application.

Early educators are qualified, trusted and have a huge responsibility caring for and educating the very youngest members of our community. Yet they can be paid as little as $21 an hour.

All the research is there. We know about the importance of brain development, particularly for children between the ages of birth to three years. This is when we should be maximising the sorts of efforts we make with those children yet we pay the people responsible for that effort $21 an hour.

This poor decision by the Fair Work Commission, which will deliver not one cent to the pockets of ECE workers despite taking four years and who knows how much in lawyers' fees, will not stop the national walk-off that is planned for 27 March. Because educators are responsible, parents are involved and parents know, but there will be that national walk-off.

As my friend Sky Rebbettes-Gordy, an early childhood organiser at United Voice in Western Australia, said:

There is just so much evidence supporting the case the EC educators are undervalued is largely because the sector is 97% women. I challenge anyone to refer to a highly educated and highly qualified sector where 97% of the workers are male who earn just $21 an hour.

This issue will not go away. This is long overdue. It is time for the government to act. They might not be the employers—and we've all heard the minister say that—but they are the funders.

Almost 100 per cent of funding to the sector comes from taxpayers—from the federal government—to childcare services across this country. The union has spent four years fighting in the Fair Work Commission, only to have the case dismissed yesterday. Not one cent will go into the pockets of early childhood educators. The commission awarded nothing. They simply threw the case out because, for some reason, the commission failed to be convinced that there was this massive gender pay gap. Paying $21 an hour to early childhood professionals in this country is shameful. It is shameful, and it is time the Turnbull government recognised and valued the work of early childhood educators in this country.