QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator WALSH (Victoria—Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth) (14:26): Without this dedicated workforce, quality would suffer in early education. It's unavoidable, and it hurts children, and it hurts the parents who rely on this system while they're at work. So you would think that everyone would back these workers in, but the coalition of chaos over there seems confused.

You have One Nation asking, 'Didn't they just get a pay rise?' and scratching their heads over why educators even need to be qualified at all. Meanwhile, it seems that when Mr Taylor looks in the mirror he sees Senator Hanson staring back at him. If he's adopting One Nation's politics, will he also adopt One Nation's policy of questioning whether families even need early childhood education at all?

On this side of the chamber we back these workers, we back families and we back the early education and care system that one million Australian families need.