Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026
Ms ROBERTS (Pearce) (16:01): The incorporated speech read as follows— I would like to strongly support the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026. This bill recognises two essential truths: early childhood educators deserve to be properly valued and paid, and every child has the right to learn and play in an environment that is safe, supportive, and of high quality.
In Pearce, we know the difference great educators make. They are the ones helping children in our suburbs develop language, confidence, independence, and social skills. They support children through their first friendships and new experiences, comfort them when they are upset and celebrate their progress.
They also provide reassurance to families across our community. Parents in our electorate leave their children in their care knowing they will be supported, encouraged, and nurtured. This is work of enormous value.
Yet, for too long, that value was not reflected in wages. When this government came to office, early childhood services were losing workers at an alarming rate. Many educators were leaving not because they wanted to leave the profession but because they could not afford to remain.
In some centres, annual staff attrition reached 40 per cent. That level of turnover placed pressure on services, disrupted relationships between educators and children and made it more difficult for families to secure reliable care. People should not be financially better off stacking supermarket shelves than educating and caring for young children.
A country that understands the importance of children's early years must also understand the importance of the workforce supporting them. That is why the Albanese Labor government introduced a 15 per cent pay rise for eligible early childhood educators nearly two years ago. When combined with minimum wage increases, a typical full-time educator is now receiving approximately $255 more each week than before the pay rise was introduced.
For early childhood teachers, the increase is around $410 per week. More than 215,000 educators across over 11,600 services are benefiting from this investment. The results are clear.
Job vacancies have fallen by 31 per cent; applications have increased by 30 per cent in some areas, and there are now around 20,000 more childcare workers across Australia. Better wages help attract people to the sector, retain experienced educators and give services a stronger foundation for providing consistent, high-quality care. This is not simply a workforce policy.
It is an investment in children, families and the future of our country. Recognising the success of the program, the Prime Minister announced on 17 June that the government would provide $3.6 billion over the next two years to continue this wage support. This bill gives effect to that commitment.
It amends the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Act 2024, provides further funding to the special account, and extends the act's sunset date from 30 June 2028 to 31 December 2029. The special account supports the early childhood education and care worker retention payment grant. Through this grant, eligible providers receive funding to support higher wages for early childhood workers.
All childcare subsidy approved services will be able to apply, provided they meet the relevant conditions. One condition is that educators must be employed under a workplace instrument. That requirement helps ensure government funding reaches the workers it is intended to support.
It also provides greater transparency and accountability. The bill protects families from unreasonable fee increases. Services receiving the payment will be required to limit increases to their fees.
Families should not be expected to absorb the entire cost of improving wages in a sector that is essential to our economy and communities. During the first year of the program, fees at participating centres rose by approximately half as much as fees at services that did not receive the payment. Without this legislation, departmental advice is that fees could rise by around 17 per cent.
We do not want that to happen. By continuing wage support and placing conditions on fee increases, this bill is expected to save the average family around $1,500 over the next two years. For families in Pearce, that could help with groceries, household bills, transport, rent or mortgage payments.
It is real relief for hardworking households in our community. Affordable childcare also strengthens workforce participation. When parents and carers can access dependable and affordable early learning, they are better able to work, study, and contribute to the local economy.
This bill, therefore, supports educators and families at the same time. However, financial support must go hand in hand with strong expectations around quality and safety. The bill introduces an additional object and condition of funding relating to children's health and safety.
Services receiving funding will be required to meet quality area 2 of the national quality standard, which focuses on children's health, safety, and wellbeing. Where a service fails to meet the required standard, funding may be reduced or withdrawn. Approximately 95 per cent of services currently meet this requirement.
That is encouraging, but it is not enough. Every parent should be able to expect that their child is safe, regardless of which approved service they attend. The bill also provides for equivalent requirements to apply to services outside the National Quality Framework, including in-home care services.
These provisions build on wider reforms already undertaken by this government. Legislation passed last year strengthened the department's ability to stop funding services that fail to meet quality, safety, or compliance requirements under the national law. Since those powers were introduced, compliance action has been taken against 119 centres.
These services had failed to meet safety standards for at least five years. Of those centres, 55 have since corrected the identified problems. That demonstrates why enforcement matters.
Standards only protect children when services understand that noncompliance has consequences. In June, government funding was withdrawn from a service for the first time under these powers. Seven other services have voluntarily closed.
These decisions are serious, but children's safety must come first. The department can now also conduct unannounced visits to early childhood services. Since November last year, Australian government authorised officers have carried out more than 1,300 unannounced visits across the country.
State and territory regulators have increased their activity as well. In the most recent quarter, regulators undertook 1,540 compliance actions—more than twice the 735 actions recorded during the same period the previous year. Families must be able to trust that standards are maintained every day, not just when a service has advance notice of an inspection.
On 27 February, two further national reforms commenced. The first was the National Early Childhood Worker Register. The events of last year demonstrated the importance of knowing who is working in early childhood services and tracking workers as they move between centres, employers, and jurisdictions.
The second reform introduced mandatory child safety training. This applies to everyone working in a centre, including educators, teachers, managers, chief executive officers and board members. Child safety is the responsibility of everyone in an organisation.
More than 350,000 people have completed the foundation training so far, and the next stage commenced two weeks ago. The government has also banned personal mobile phones in centres, reducing risks associated with inappropriate use and helping ensure educators remain focused on children. A national CCTV trial is underway in more than 300 services.
The Australian Federal Police, the Australian Centre for Child Protection and the National Office for Child Safety are contributing to the advisory group alongside other experts. The Commonwealth is investing an additional $226 million in child safety reforms, while states and territories have committed more than $270 million. Together, governments are investing approximately half a billion dollars to improve safety and quality in early childhood education and care.
Last month, education ministers also agreed to examine the possibility of establishing an early education and care commission to further strengthen oversight across the sector. These reforms are guided by a clear principle: children's safety must never be treated as secondary. This bill brings these priorities together.
It supports the workforce that makes early learning possible. It provides educators with better pay and a stronger incentive to remain in the profession. It helps families by limiting fee increases and protecting access to affordable care.
It supports parents and carers to work and study. And it links public funding to clear expectations around quality, compliance and child safety. These issues are particularly important for the people of Pearce.
Families across our community depend on early learning services so they can participate in work, education and community life. They want their children cared for by educators who are respected, supported and able to build sustainable careers. They also want confidence that every service meets the standards expected by parents, carers and the community.
This bill helps provide that confidence. It is an investment in the people who care for our children, in families who rely on early learning and in the safety and wellbeing of every child. The early childhood workforce have made clear what is needed: fair wages, secure funding, respect for their profession and a safe, sustainable sector.
This Albanese Labor government has listened. We are ensuring that the historic wage increase can continue, that families are protected from excessive fee rises and that services receiving public funding meet appropriate safety and quality standards. This bill is an important step towards a stronger, fairer, and safer early childhood education and care system.
I commend the bill to the House.