Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Along with so many Australians every day, I know that what matters most at school or kindy drop-off is the person who is taking the hand of my child as I walk out the door to work. It makes a huge difference when an early educator connects with children and is committed to keeping them safe and promoting their learning and development. There is a critical window of opportunity in a child's first five years. The evidence tells us that early education helps kids' brains grow and sets them up for success. This dedicated, hardworking, feminised workforce deserves to be recognised with a 15 per cent pay rise. It's all well and good to talk about how amazing workers in this sector are, but accolades don't pay the bills. The Albanese Labor government is acting and walking the talk. This pay increase will see skilled workers return to the sector as well as attract more workers. This in turn will provide more families with quality early education and out-of-school-hours care. This enables more parents to participate in paid work and will ensure these costs are not passed on to families.

Early-years and after-hours services play such an important part in growing the brains of our next generation of leaders. Earlier this week I met with SNAICC and Yappera Children's Service to discuss the strength and significance of community controlled early-youth services. Increasing the wages provided to staff is a critical part of the work they do. I also spent time with the Community Child Care Association and Community Early Learning Australia, who have been advocating for many years for these changes to the pay conditions of early-years workers. They were so grateful to us for prioritising this investment in the early-years space amongst many other competing priorities of this government. The Albanese Labor government remains committed to strengthening the capacity of early-year services across Australia.