Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026
Ms CLAYDON (Newcastle—Deputy Speaker) (15:46): I rise today in support of the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026. This is a bill that's an important part of the Albanese Labor government's broader agenda to make life better for children, families and working Australians.
When we came to government, Australia's early childhood education and care sector was in crisis. Families were facing high fees, services were struggling to find enough educators, and workers were underpaid and leaving the sector. That meant fewer people choosing early childhood education as a career, poor retention and, in too many communities, families struggling to find a place for their children.
We've been working to change that. We've increased the childcare subsidy to make early learning more affordable for families and introduced the three-day guarantee, ensuring every child eligible for subsidised care can access at least three days of early learning a week. We're also investing $1 billion through the Building Early Education Fund to build new centres and expand existing services, with a focus on underserved communities and areas experiencing childcare shortages.
We recognise that none of these reforms can work without a strong early childhood workforce. That is why we introduced the worker retention payment and funded a 15 per cent increase for early childhood education and care workers. This bill is about recognising the value of work that matters enormously to families.
Every day, early childhood workers help children learn, grow, develop confidence and get ready for school. They're there for their first friendships, their first stories, their first songs and their first steps towards independence. It is one of the most important jobs in the country, and people doing that work deserve to be paid fairly for it.
For too long, early childhood education and care workers have been asked to do incredibly important work while being paid wages that did not properly reflect the value of their contribution. This government believes that has to change, and that is why, on 8 August 2024, the Albanese Labor government announced it would fund a 15 per cent wage increase for early childhood education and care workers.
That decision was about more than a pay packet. It was about valuing a workforce that Australian families depend on every single day. When we talk about a 15 per cent wage increase, we are talking about real people and real household budgets.
We're talking about an educator being able to pay the electricity bill without having to worry quite so much. We're talking about a family being able to put more money towards their mortgage or rent, or a worker being able to afford groceries, fuel or school expenses. And we're talking about telling early educators that their work is valued.
The workers who care for our children are skilled professionals. They support children's development and wellbeing. They create safe and nurturing environments.
They work with families. They identify children's needs. They help children build the social and emotional skills they will carry with them into school and beyond.
Parents know how important that relationship is. When you leave your child at an early learning service, you are placing enormous trust in the people who care for them. You want your child to be safe, you want them to be supported, you want them to be known and you want the people caring for them to have the time, stability and support to do their jobs properly.
That is why improving wages and improving workforce stability go hand in hand. When the government introduced the worker retention payment, the early childhood sector was facing significant workforce pressures. Services were delaying expansion plans, closing rooms and limiting enrolments because they simply couldn't find enough staff.
That was a problem for workers, but it was also a big problem for parents because, when a centre does not have enough educators, families can be left without a place for their child. Workforce retention is not just about numbers; it is fundamental to quality and safety. Children benefit from consistent relationships with the adults who care for them.
Educators need stability too, and, when educators stay in their roles, they can develop strong relationships with children and families. They get to know each child's personality, strengths and needs. That continuity matters, and the evidence shows that the government's investment is working.
Since the worker retention payment was announced in 2024, there are around 20,000 more early childcare workers, an increase of about eight per cent. Job vacancies in early child care have decreased by almost 31 per cent. The percentage of services operating with a staffing waiver has fallen from 8.9 per cent to 4.3 per cent.
Importantly for parents, fees at centres receiving the payment grew at around half the rate of centres that were not signed up. We see the impact in Newcastle. Data from July shows that there are 69 early childhood centres in my electorate and more than 1,000 staff who are benefiting from the continued increase in support.
These are not abstract numbers. They tell a story. The workforce is growing and job vacancies are falling.
More services are able to operate without relying on staffing waivers, and families are seeing the benefits through consistent care for their children, correct staffing levels and lower fee growth. The worker retention payment has helped bolster our early education workforce while helping keep costs down for families. But we know that this progress needs to be sustained, and that's why, on 14 June 2026, the Albanese Labor government announced that it would lock in the pay rise for another two years.
This bill gives effect to that commitment. It credits the special account with an additional $3.6 billion and extends the act's sunset date to 31 December 2029, supporting the extension of wage funding. That means early educators can have greater certainty about their wages, it means services have greater certainty about their workforce, and it means parents have greater certainty about the early learning services that they rely on.
The funding will also continue to be tied to a commitment from participating services to limit fee increases for families. That means the funding extension will save the average family around $1,500 over the next two years. That is $1,500 that can stay in a family's household budget.
At a time when families are feeling cost-of-living pressures, that matters. So it's not simply a wage policy, as important as that is. It's a policy that recognises the connections between wages, workforce stability, quality early learning and family budgets.
To the educators listening to this debate, I want to make one thing very clear. This pay rise is about recognising the value of your work. When we say we want to build a stronger early childhood education sector, we mean we need to invest in the people who make that sector work; when we say we want more children to have access to quality early learning, we need enough educators to provide it; and, when we say that we want parents to be able to participate in work, we need early learning services that families can rely on.
That starts with a workforce that is properly valued. When combined with the government's support for minimum wage increases, this will mean $255 more per week for a typical full-time educator and $410 more per week for early childhood teachers, compared with December 2024, when the government first implemented the pay rise. This is a significant difference to a household budget.
And, for the first time, employees in all CCS approved services will be eligible for the payment. This is an important step towards making sure the benefits of this policy are available right across the sector. For parents, this bill is also about something very practical—having confidence that the person looking after your child is valued, supported and able to stay in the profession.
Parents should not have to worry that their child's room will close because the service cannot find enough educators. They should not have to worry about constantly changing educators because staff cannot afford to stay. They should not have to choose between participating in work and finding quality early learning for their children.
This investment helps tackle those pressures. It supports a more stable workforce, stronger relationships between educators and children, and more reliable services for families. By limiting fee increases at participating services, it also helps ease cost-of-living pressures.
This is what good government should do: improve the lives of working people while strengthening the services families rely upon. Early childhood education is not the only way this government is supporting children and families. We've extended paid parental leave to the full 26 weeks, giving more families more time with a new child and greater financial security during those crucial early months.
And we're paying superannuation on paid parental leave, recognising that time away from work to spend the crucial first months of your little one's life with them should not mean falling behind on your retirement savings. I want to highlight the impact this has had on families in Newcastle. In the last year alone, just under 2,000 locals received the increased paid parental leave entitlement.
These reforms are about recognising that supporting children means supporting the families that raise them, and they sit alongside our broader cost-of-living agenda. We're backing another pay rise for around three million minimum and award wage workers and delivering tax cuts that put more money into the pockets of working Australians. Together, these measures reflect simple beliefs: if you work hard, you should be able to get ahead; if you care for children, that work should be properly valued; and, if you are raising a family, you should have the support you need to give your children the best possible start in life.
There's also a bigger picture here. Quality early childhood education is an investment in our children. It gives children the foundations they need to thrive.
It helps parents participate in work, it supports employers who need a reliable workforce and it strengthens our economy. But none of that happens without early childhood educators—the people who open the doors in the morning; the people who comfort a child who is missing mum or dad; the people who read the same story for the tenth time; the people who help children learn to share, communicate and solve problems; the people who notice that something is not quite right; and the people who help prepare our children for their first day of school.
Those workers deserve our respect. They deserve decent pay and a government that is prepared to back that up with action. That is what this government is doing—making early learning more affordable, expanding access, strengthening the workforce, supporting parents and giving working families a fairer go because when we invest in children, we invest in families.
When we support families, we're strengthening our communities, and when we value the people who care for and educate our children, we're building a stronger Australia. Every child deserves the best start that we can give them, every family deserves the support to provide it, and every early childhood educator deserves to know that the work they do is valued. That is the better future we are building.
And this bill is an important part of it. I commend the bill to the House. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Chesters ): I understand that the member for Pearce would like to present a copy of their speech for incorporation into Hansard, in accordance with the resolution agreed to on 6 November 2025.