QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator WALSH (Victoria—Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth) (14:22): Thank you very much, Senator Darmanin, for the question and for your years of dedication to working Australians. Like everyone on this side of the chamber, Senator Darmanin backs workers, and that includes our nation's dedicated early childhood educators. Our 15 per cent pay rise has been a game changer.

With minimum wages also going up this week on 1 July, in total a typical full-time educator will be $255 a week better off. Just like we've backed higher minimum wages for all workers, we've backed a pay boost for our nation's early childhood educators. Under the previous coalition government, educators were leaving the sector in droves.

Educators told the coalition again and again that low pay was driving a workforce crisis, and they did nothing about it. So we did the hard work of delivering real change through our $3.6 billion pay rise. Educators themselves are telling us just what a difference this has made.

When the Prime Minister announced the pay rise a couple of weeks ago, he met Elizabeth. She's worked in early childhood education for 21 years, and she says our 15 per cent pay rise is helping more educators just like her stay in the jobs they love. That's good for them, and it's also great for kids, because this pay rise means a stable workforce and more certainty for children and families.

There are more than 200,000 workers just like Elizabeth covered by this pay rise—200,000 educators, overwhelmingly women. This is real change for those workers, who were undervalued for way too long by those opposite. Labor believes the people who educate and care for Australia's youngest children deserve to be paid properly.

(Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Darmanin, first supplementary?