CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Ms TEESDALE (Bass) (09:38): Recently I had the pleasure of visiting the Discovery Early Learning Centre in Launceston as part of Early Learning Matters Week. It was wonderful to spend time with the young children as they built, explored, played and problem-solved together. As a teacher, it was a particular pleasure to be back in a space that I deeply love, helping children to engage in play.

Now, play is not simply something that children do for fun. It is how they learn to communicate, build confidence, develop creativity, solve problems, form friendships and begin to engage with the world around them. Those early learning experiences help lay the foundation for lifelong learning.

But behind all of that are our early childhood educators. Every day, they create safe, welcoming and engaging environments where children can learn, grow and thrive. When visiting the centre, I moved between creative play spaces that included blocks, a dental clinic, bookmaking and a fishing hole.

I know exactly how long these spaces take to set up and how purposeful they are in developing speech, writing opportunities and fine motor skills. Thank you so much to those educators who'd created those spaces that I also got to involve myself in and play with. It is skilled and very important work, and it does deserve to be recognised and highly valued.

That is why I am proud that our government has supported the 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators, including around 400 workers in my electorate of Bass. For too long, those early educators were undervalued and underpaid, and too many were leaving a profession that they deeply loved, because they simply could not afford to stay. We are very pleased to see that turning around now, with more educators entering and staying in the sector.

We're also making sure that, as we invest in the workforce, we continue to strengthen the safety and the quality for children and give parents confidence in the care that their children receive. But this week, Early Learning Matters Week, was all about recognising the people at the centre of it all. To the educators at Discovery and to the early childhood educators right across Bass—I thank you.

Thank you for your patience, for your care, for your skill and for your energy, which you bring to work every single day, because it can be exhausting. Playing for eight hours a day can be very tiring, I assure you! Thank you for supporting our children at such an important stage of their lives.

The work you do in those early years will stay with children for a lifetime, and our community is stronger for it.