Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026

Ms COKER (Corangamite) (15:41): We know that our government has already taken significant action to strengthen safety and compliance across this sector. Last year, legislation gave the Commonwealth greater powers to respond when operators fail to meet quality, safety and compliance requirements. Since then, the department has taken compliance action against 119 centres.

More than half of those centres have now addressed problems they had previously failed to fix. That demonstrates why strong enforcement powers matter. Rules only protect children if they are followed, and standards only mean something if there are consequences when they are not met.

We're also strengthening the ability of authorised officers to conduct unannounced visits to childcare centres. These important initiatives, taken together, are reforms that represent a significant investment in making early childhood education and care safer. The Commonwealth is investing an additional $226 million in child safety reforms, alongside more than $270 million committed by the states and territories.

That is around half a billion dollars from governments to strengthen quality and safety. This bill is another part of that work. It links government supports to the standards we expect services to meet.

That is an important principle. If the Commonwealth is helping fund a service, that service should meet the standards that parents and children have a right to expect, and, if it does not, there should be consequences. That is not about making life harder for good operators; it's about backing the vast majority of services that are doing the right thing and making sure that the small number that are not complying cannot simply continue without consequence.

Most early childhood educators and services are doing an extraordinary job. They care deeply about the children they work with. They build relationships with families.

They help children develop confidence and independence. They are often among the first adults outside a child's family to recognise when something is not quite right, and they make an enormous contribution to the development of children before they even reach school. We should be proud of that workforce, and we should make sure that workforce is properly supported.

This is why the pay increase matters. It's helping retain experienced educators, attracting more people into the sector and building the stable workforce that children and families rely on. I see the importance of that stability in my electorate every day.

I speak with families who are trying to make work and family life fit together. I speak with educators who are passionate about what they do and want to build a career in the sector. I speak with services that are working hard to provide high quality care while managing the realities of staffing costs and demands.

They all have a stake in getting this right, and it's why I support this bill. It recognises the value of the workforce. It provides greater certainty around our government's investment in wages.

It protects families from the cost of that investment simply being passed through to higher fees, and it puts the safety and wellbeing of children at the centre of funding arrangements. That is a sensible and responsible approach. But we know there is no single piece of legislation that can solve every challenge facing early childhood education and care.

There is more work to do, and that's why we're also building a stronger workforce with our investment in free TAFE—tens of thousands more Australians gaining the skills needed to work in the sector under the Albanese government's free TAFE program. Free TAFE's national rollout started in 2023, offering places for courses that get Australians qualified to work in priority sectors with skill shortages.

Since that time, there have been 65,290 enrolments in free TAFE courses across the country. This is proving to be a game changer for many in the sector, backing more Australians to play a part in educating and caring for our kids. In closing, I note that, for families in my electorate, this means an early childhood education and care system that is more affordable, more secure and more focused on what matters most: giving children a safe and positive start in life.

For workers, it means being properly valued and supported to build a career in a profession that matters enormously to our communities. And, for children, it means stronger protections, better quality care and educators who have the support they need to do their very best work. That's the kind of early childhood system Australian families deserve.

That is what the Albanese government is working to deliver, and I'm so proud, having joined with the Big Steps team all those years ago to walk down Flinders Street to shout out for early-years educators, that we now have acted and are supporting them. I commend the bill to the House.