QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr CLARE (Blaxland—Minister for Education) (15:09): Can I thank my friend the totally awesome dolphin-training member for Tangney for his question? Child care isn't a nice to have for more than a million mums and dads across the country; it's an essential service, and we're rolling out five big reforms to make it better, to make it fairer and to make it safer.

The first of those are our cheaper childcare laws, and you'll remember they were opposed by the Liberal Party. They were also opposed by the Liberal Party with the orange logo up the back. I can tell the House that, after three years, those cheaper childcare laws have saved the average family more than $11,000.

That's the first. The second is the 3 Day Guarantee. It's been in place for about six months, and that's already helping tens of thousands of kids from poor families to get access to early education that were denied that before—again, opposed by the Liberal Party and opposed by the orange Liberal Party up the back.

The third is building childcare centres where they don't exist at the moment, including in primary schools. If you're a mum or a dad and you've got a kid at school and you've got a kid at child care, that means one drop-off not two, once again opposed by the blue Liberal Party and opposed by the orange Liberal Party. Fourth is the biggest safety reforms that have ever been made to child care.

That includes banning mobile phones. That includes the CCTV trial. That includes mandatory safety training, and that's supported by everyone across the chamber.

The fifth is the 15 per cent pay rise. I told the House yesterday that, when we came to office, childcare workers were leaving the system in droves, not because they didn't love the job but because love doesn't pay the bills, and they could earn more money stacking shelves than they could educating our kids. That's now changed.

Because of that 15 per cent pay rise, we now have 20,000 more workers in our childcare centres today than before that pay rise, something the Liberal Party never did and something One Nation would never do—something this Labor government has done. It means more money in the pockets of workers across the country. But it's not just that, because you've got to apply and you've got to commit to two conditions to get this funding.

First is a cap on your fees. That means parents pay less than they otherwise would. Parents will save about $1,500 over the next two years.

Second, you need to meet the national safety standard. There is nothing more important than the safety of our kids. I think all members of parliament would agree making centres meet that standard is important.

So this is the trifecta—more pay for workers, prices down for parents and more work to keep our kids safe. Mr Albanese: Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.