STATEMENTS

Ms BRISKEY (Maribyrnong) (19:18): I, like all of us in this place, was sickened and devastated by the revelations of the most heinous crimes allegedly committed in early learning centres in Victoria. It is with a very heavy heart that I reflect on the fact that there are families in my electorate directly affected, with the alleged perpetrator having worked across three centres in Maribyrnong.

It is a parent's absolutely worst nightmare. As I stand here and make my contribution on behalf of those families in my community who are reeling from these recent events, I do so also for parents right across my community and across this country. Rightly, it is the expectation of those families and every Australian that their government act with urgency and purpose in response, and that's exactly what we're doing.

I acknowledge how swiftly Ministers Clare and Walsh, together with the Prime Minister, put into action this response to protect the safety and wellbeing of our youngest Australians. I also acknowledge the collaboration that is occurring with the state and territory governments and the role everyone has to play as well as acknowledging the opposition's involvement in this space.

The safety of children and their protection sits, rightly, above politics. This is an area of real concern to me. I have been active in early education for some time in my advocacy with parents and carers fighting for more affordable and high-quality early learning care and also alongside early-childhood educators as they have been fighting for decades to reform and advocate for the professionalism of their sector.

This is hard. It is hard to deal with the situation that we have been faced with, but, as I said, it's incredibly important that our government is acting with urgency. As the minister said, ensuring that we increase standards is the focus of this legislation, by using a lever of government available to us—a pretty significant one at that, being Commonwealth funding through the childcare subsidy.

The option to withdraw that should centres or services demonstrate that they are consistently failing the safety of our children is an important lever that we are prepared to use, and that's exactly what this legislation will do. As I said, having stood in solidarity with parents, carers and early-childhood educators for over a decade now, it is really important for me to also use this opportunity to make sure we stand beside the early-childhood educators, 99.9 per cent of whom do such an incredible job.

One of the best ways we can address the safety and wellbeing of children in our early-childhood centres is by continuing to invest in our educators—by giving them the resources and power to do their job, as they do, with good quality and time. The best protection for our children is investment in our educators. I'm glad to see that under the previous Albanese Labor government there was a 15 per cent pay increase.

It was well deserved and responded to a well-recognised need to see our early-childhood educators paid a professional wage. It goes a way towards ensuring that our educators are properly recognised. It also attracts educators back to the sector.

Part of the challenge in this space is the fact that we have seen educators leaving the sector in droves. We've had such a significant issue with workforce shortages. That enables safety and quality to be compromised.

Alongside this really important legislation we need to see enacted—and I commend the legislation—is also the ongoing work in investing in our educators, reforming our early education and care, and properly recognising it for the education and development it delivers for our youngest Australians, setting them up to succeed in life. That's what early education is for the vast majority of our youngest Australians and families.

It is important that every one of the millions of Australian families using early education and care as we speak—every parent—has confidence in our early education sector. As the mother of two daughters, both of whom went through early education and care and had an amazing experience, I can really see, now that they're in primary school, the benefit of their early education and care experience.

I cannot fathom what it must be like for those parents and families in my own community who are reeling at the consequences of the most recent revelations. I stand in solidarity with those families, but I in particular stand in solidarity with our early childhood educators. I will continue my advocacy in this House to ensure that they have a voice and that parents have a voice to make sure we continue to protect our most vulnerable Australians.

This is exactly what this bill does, so I commend it to the House. Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:2 5