Lisa Darmanin (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak about early childhood education this afternoon. We know that it is transformative and that all children should be able to access the transformative benefits that it provides. This week, the Productivity Commission handed down its final report on early childhood education and care, which considered how to build an affordable, accessible, inclusive, high-quality, universal early learning system that works for all Australians. The report included 56 recommendations and considered a range of matters around how to build an affordable, accessible system that includes high-quality care and is universal and inclusive. Lasting reform in the early childhood education system requires long-term commitment and investment, and I know this government is committed to charting the course in the great tradition that it has on things like Medicare and superannuation.

The report confirms what we already know: that prioritising the workforce is critical in any of these reforms. It says that one of the first things that we need to do in order to build a bigger and better early education system is to build a bigger early education and care workforce. The report makes several additional findings and recommendations about workforce, and it's great to see that this government is already on the path to deliver some of these outcomes. This government has already acted to introduce the 15 per cent wage rise for early education and care workers because, if you want to attract the best possible early childhood educators to the job, you need to pay them what they're worth. If we want to retain these workers, we need to pay them what they're worth. The pay rise, in a sector where 95 per cent of the workforce are women, is a testament to the Albanese government's commitment to closing the gender pay gap and achieving economic security for Australian women. To make sure that the cost of this wage increase isn't passed on to parents, early childhood education and care services won't be able to increase their fees by more than 4.4 per cent over the next 12 months.

The government has also commissioned the ACCC to provide greater insight into the factors driving fee increases, and its report will be considered alongside the Productivity Commission's broad review of the ECEC system. It's an important step in the government's reforms to the sector, and it builds on the successful cheaper childcare changes, which saw an average reduction of 11 per cent in out-of-pocket expenses for centre based day care, making childcare more affordable for around 1.2 million Australians. Improving access to and affordability of this care is also critical for supporting people, especially women, to continue working, to re-enter the workforce after a period of time out or to increase their hours of work should they choose to do so.

I recently had the great pleasure of meeting with a number of early childhood educators at Goodstart in Flemington and Malvern Early Learning and Child Care Centre in Melbourne. In particular, I met with Chathuri, who is a United Workers Union delegate and an excellent leader and advocate in her workplace. She has not only put in the long hours every day in educating and caring for our children but worked incredibly hard with her colleagues to achieve the 15 per cent pay rise that has recently been committed to. But not only that; Chathuri has also really committed to educating herself further by seeking out postgraduate studies to deepen her knowledge and enhance the quality of early childhood education and care for the benefit of all children and families in her community. I think this is a really critical point because early childhood educators are not babysitters. They are not undertaking child care. They play a vital role in a pivotal time in a child's life, and this cannot be understated. Between the ages of three and five, one of the most formative developmental phases of a child's life takes place, and it is critical that we value their work as professional, educated work.

To sum up, we believe all children should be able to access high-quality early childhood education, no matter where they live or their background, and a great place to begin that process is to make sure that the workers are properly remunerated for the professional work that they do.