Press conference - Canberra

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Well, g'day everybody, thanks for coming along. It's great to be here at Goodstart this morning. In, what is it, just over an hour I'll be in the Federal Parliament introducing legislation to lock in the 15 per cent pay rise for our early educators.

This is real cost‑of‑living support for people who do some of the most important jobs in this country, who care for and educate our kids, and not just that, it's real cost‑of‑living help for mums and dads, for more than a million parents across the country whose children are in early education and care. This pay rise will help to make sure that the average parent saves about $1,500 bucks over the next two years.

So it's cost‑of‑living help for our early education workers, it's cost‑of‑living help for mums and dads, but not just that, it will also improve the safety of our early education and care centres, because to get this funding we are imposing in this legislation a new condition that you also need to meet the minimum safety standard. 95 per cent of centres do that at the moment, I want it to be 100 per cent, and that's why as a condition of receiving this funding to pay your workers more, you will also need to meet the minimum safety standard.

So, this really is the trifecta, good for workers, good for parents and good for our kids. I'll hand over to Amanda to say a few words. AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: Our Government has been absolutely focused on closing the gender pay gap, and part of that is recognising that in industries where women have been the dominant workforce, they have been undervalued and underpaid for too long.

That is why our government put gender equity at the heart of the Fair Work Act and that is exactly why we are delivering this pay increase for early educators. These early educators support our youngest Australians grow and become wonderful citizens, and they have been undervalued and not recognised. This pay increase does exactly that.

I have been quite disappointed in the reaction from the Liberal Party, and indeed One Nation, about their reaction to our support for early educators. They've often said that this is a waste of money. This fundamentally misunderstands the critical role that our early educators play and the importance that early education has at that critical early time in life.

So, I would really ask both One Nation and the Liberal Party to reconsider their disparaging comments they make about our early educators, get on board, support this pay increase, because these workers deserve a pay rise. SENATOR DR JESS WALSH, MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION, MINISTER FOR YOUTH: Well, today we are introducing legislation into the Parliament to lock in our historic 15 per cent pay rise for our nation's dedicated professional early childhood educators.

This is an overwhelmingly female workforce. They have been undervalued for too long and today our message to them is we see you, we respect you, we value you, and we are locking in your historic 15 per cent pay rise. When we took office, the Coalition had left us with a workforce crisis, they had refused to value our nation's early childhood educators, and they were leaving the sector in droves.

Today when I talk to educators across the country, they tell me about the real change that this pay rise is delivering for them. For the first time they can see a real future in this sector, they can see that they can stay in the sector and continue to support children and families, and they can see a future for their own families too. We want educators to be able to afford to stay in the jobs that they love, and that is exactly what this pay rise is delivering for this overwhelmingly female workforce, it's delivering quality early education for children, and it's delivering cost‑of‑living relief for families too.

All right. Happy to take questions. JOURNALIST: I've just got a question on the childcare first.

You talk about it being a pay rise, but it's actually a grant for four years. Will you see a pay rise eventually, an official pay rise? This pay rise is permanent, it's a 15 per cent pay rise, it's $255 a week extra in the pockets of our nation's early childhood educators.

What the legislation does, the Wage Justice Bill for early childhood educators is locks the funding in for a further two years. Again, the pay rise itself becomes permanent when it's locked into the award next year, and over the next couple of years, we'll continue to work on funding [indistinct] as we will for quality childhood education system. JOURNALIST: Minister Rishworth, I'll get you to chat, and Minister Clare as well - the Federal Opposition wants the AFP to investigate who leaked correspondence between Australia and Japan over the Prime Minister's remarks about melons.

Should the AFP investigate? Look, let's be really clear. The Liberal Party is just doing a political stunt here.

The AFP have got really serious issues to look into, and I, you know, would assume that that would be their priority. Of course, the country also has serious issues to tackle, and our government is getting on with the job. I think it is a sad day in this country that you have the Liberal Party pretty much giving up and focusing on such ridiculous matters, and you know, we're going to get on as a government, get on with the job of delivering for the Australian people and that's where our focus is.

JOURNALIST: A lot of the Australian people have questions about the hand gestures, the Prime Minister's hand gestures that he was making in front of his chest. Can you explain those? Look, I am not going to comment on that.

Quite frankly there has been some significant mischaracterisations of that podcast, and I don't think it warrants any more commentary. JOURNALIST: Minister Clare, I might ask you then, should the Prime Minister apologise for causing any offence caused by either his comments or his gestures in a diplomatic scene? My honest view on this is this is rubbish.

The Prime Minister answered this question in Parliament yesterday. Australia has a very strong relationship with Japan, in no small part due to the work of our Prime Minister. The work that he has done with Japan is making sure that our relationship with Japan is getting stronger by the day.

We've got serious issues in this country that we've got to tackle here, and it requires serious politicians. The fact that the Liberal Party seem to be distracted by this I think shows they're not fit to govern here. The sort of things that we should be focused on here are what mums and dads are worried about.

And what's that? Cost of living, being able to afford a decent life for them and for their kids, looking after their neighbours, all of the sorts of things that occupy the minds and concerns of mums and dads across the country are not this, it's paying the bills. That's why what we're doing today is important here; making sure that we're paying our early educators more, making sure that we're saving mums’ and dads' money, are just two examples of where the Government's focused on the real things that matter for mums and dads across the country.

JOURNALIST: Just on the protest, the National Union of Students is encouraging tertiary and recordable students to leave their schools, lecture halls, everything, to gather and protest in opposition to the rise of Pauline Hanson. As Education Minister, should students be leaving school to protest? No, I want kids at school learning, and I think I've been pretty consistent in that, in whatever protests have happened over the years.

You know, we're a democracy, if people want to protest on the weekend, then fill your boots, but I want you at school when school is on, learning. I get it that people, you know, don't like One Nation, I don't like One Nation either, and you're seeing them get more and more extreme by the day, you know, in the last few weeks they're talking about the White Australia Policy, the other day they said that domestic violence is a two‑way street.

Domestic violence is not a two‑way street, domestic violence is a crime. And so, I get that people are worried about it, I get that people realise that if you vote for the Liberal Party, you'll end up with a Liberal-One Nation Government. If you vote for One Nation, you'll end up with a Liberal-One Nation Government as well.

This is the worst two-for-one deal in Australian political history here. The bottom line is you vote for one you get both, you end up with Angus Taylor and Pauline Hanson, the Dopey and Gabbana of Australian politics. I don't think any Australian wants that.

JOURNALIST: Just one more question for you, thank you Minister. I'd just like your thoughts on should the Prime Minister apologise if he caused any offence to the Prime Minister of Japan, and the Japanese people. I would just echo what Minister Clare said.

Our Prime Minister has been rebuilding relationships around our region and around the world after the dismal state that the previous government left it in. And of course, when it comes to Japan, there is an incredibly strong relationship between Australia and Japan, and that is a credit to our Prime Minister for the work that he's done in building that relationship.

JOURNALIST: It hasn't just broken down with that ‑ AMANDA RISHWORTH: I would say – the Prime Minister has answered this – and I would say that we have an incredibly strong relationship with Japan, and that is a real credit to this Prime Minister. JOURNALIST: Thank you so much. Thanks everyone.