Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of government document No. 4, Productivity Commission Report No. 106, A path to universal early childhood education and care, dated 28 June 2024, in three volumes. I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

Today the Productivity Commission released their final report on the future of Australia's early childhood education and care, or ECEC, system. At over a thousand pages, the report makes 56 recommendations and is the culmination of 16 months' worth of work. This document considers how to build an affordable, accessible, inclusive, high-quality education and care system.

The report also highlights that ECEC can improve the outcomes for children, particularly those experiencing disadvantage and vulnerability. As a former early childhood educator, this is something that I and everyone else who has worked and works in the sector knows all too well. Children who experience vulnerability and disadvantage actually benefit the most from quality early childhood education and care, but they are currently the least likely to attend, unfortunately.

A strong early childhood education and care industry is good for workers, good for parents, good for children and good for the economy, and we know from research that quality early childhood education is critical for a child's social, physical, emotional and cognitive development. It prepares children to start school, lays the foundations for lifelong development and learning and directly leads to better health, education and employment outcomes later in life. There is no doubt that the long-term benefits of investment in children's early years far outweigh any cost.

As highlighted in the report, early childhood education is not reaching those who need it most, and this is something that the Labor Party recognises as being a priority. The cognitive benefits for children who receive quality early childhood education can be linked to $1.06 billion in higher earnings over their lifetimes, and a further $495 million in higher taxes paid to government—just a thought for people to consider.

Since coming into government, we've already made a significant number of reforms to the sector, but we know that there is more work to do to ensure the ECEC sector works for all families across Australia. As confirmed in the report, we need to prioritise the ECEC workforce, making it bigger and better, and that's why we have already acted to increase wages by 15 per cent for the ECEC workforce, which the report suggests will be effective in relieving recruitment and retention challenges.

What this means in reality for an early childhood educator is an extra $100 a week from this December and an extra $155 per week from next December, or around $7,800 per year. For an early childhood teacher, the increase is even more, adding up to an increase of around $13,000 a year from next December. We know that this has already had an impact on retaining early childhood and education care workers. I also hope that anyone who might have left the industry because of low wages can make the decision to come back, in the knowledge that this government values your work and experience and will continue to fight for better wages and conditions for you.

Yet another way we are growing the workforce is through better training opportunities. This includes more university places for early childhood education teachers and fee-free TAFE, such that, already, there are about 30,000 more early educators working today than there were two years ago when we were elected. But the truth is that we do have to do even more if we're going to build the bigger, better and fairer early childhood education system that our children deserve.

We also want to ensure that having a fairly paid ECEC workforce does not come at a higher cost for families, which is why we tied the wage increase to workers with a commitment from childcare centres to limit fee increases to 4.4 per cent in the 12 months from August this year. This will keep prices down for the more than one million families who place their children in early childhood care, and it comes on top of other savings we've delivered in the last 12 months. Access to affordable early childhood education means that parents can work, train, study and volunteer, boosting not only our economy but our social equity as well. The changes we made in the last 12 months mean that a family on a combined income of $120,000 today, with one child in care three days a week, is now paying about $2,000 less than they otherwise would have been.

I thank the Productivity Commission for this important report that will help inform and shape our strategies on achieving a high-quality, truly universal ECEC system for all Australians. As the government that has done more for the early childhood education and care sector than any other government, we welcome the release of this report today. (Time expired)

Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of the Productivity Commission's report, A path to universal early childhood education and care, which has been tabled in the parliament and publicly released today. The coalition is currently making its way through the Productivity Commission's final report, which includes more than 56 recommendations and almost 1,000 pages of information, data and findings, and a response will be provided in due course. We note that the report highlights the achievements in the sector made under the previous coalition government, including the increase in early childhood education and care places by 50 per cent, the increase in the number of four-year-olds enrolled in ECEC to 90 per cent, and the increase in women's workforce participation.

I note with concern that the Albanese government has sat on this report for weeks, and, while releasing it today, has taken no position, despite it having been in the minister's drawer. It's no great surprise that the government is giving no indication of its position, because Minister Clare, as the overarching Minister for Education, has seen chaos in school funding on his watch. We have a school funding war underway in this country, courtesy of the Minister for Education, we have the university sector in meltdown and, of course, despite the fact that the government has had this report for a number of weeks, we have no insight into where the government is going on this.

What we do know is that Labor continues to talk the big game on child care, but the reality is that there are families who continue to miss out—there are many childcare deserts across this country—and many other families who are paying higher costs. That is because, despite the government's rhetoric, despite their memes and other slogans, despite their sloganeering, in the last 12 months out-of-pocket childcare costs have increased by 8.4 per cent. Labor's so-called $4.7 billion 'cheaper' childcare package has not only not delivered a single place for families without access to early learning; it has imposed greater out-of-pocket costs on families. When you think about what families are enduring at the moment, with the cost of everything going through the roof because of Labor's homegrown inflation, one of the highest of any advanced country in the world, it is no surprise that families have also been hit by increased out-of-pocket costs for child care.

As I said, there are no new places for regional Australians suffering from no access to child care, so it is an insult to parents that Labor continues to claim that families are better off under this government when so many families are struggling to make ends meet, including in relation to child care. Education costs across the board have gone up 11 per cent. Gas and electricity have gone through the roof, as have food and fuel. People are dreading going to their mailbox or their inbox and opening their bills. So many families dread how they can barely get food on the table, let alone how they are going to pay their bills.

I also want to raise that we have seen reports of centres increasing their fees by up to $30 a day. Despite the rhetoric from Labor on the so-called cheaper child care, this promised subsidy has been substantially eaten up by higher fees since last July. To families in regional, rural and remote Australia, I say once again: where is the Labor Party for all the families who are struggling to find one childcare place for one child? Of course, when you cannot find child care, you cannot work. Families in regional Australia did not have the same options. As I say, the Labor government, despite promising so much and talking the big talk, has delivered very little, and it's very regrettable that the government has so little to say, despite this report.