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

Mr GEORGANAS (Adelaide) (16:14): I rise as well to support this very important bill, the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026. Few professionals have a greater impact on our children's lives and the future of this nation than those who care for and educate our youngest Australians.

Every day, early childhood educators help shape the lives of children during some of the most important years of their development. They nurture their curiosity, support learning, build confidence and provide the safe and caring environments that allow children to thrive. Yet for too long these professionals have not received the recognition nor the remuneration that they deserve.

That's why this bill before this House is so important. We know that, when you look at the research of educators and people that research early learning, all the signs are there. The evidence is clearly there that the earlier you start a child in an education program the better off that child will be in the future and the more likely they are to succeed in life.

Early education, the first few years that shape that little human being, points to that. That's why, as I said, this bill before the House is so important. The Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers Bill 2026 delivers on the government's commitment to lock in pay rises for early childhood educators for a further two years to continue to build a stronger and fairer early learning system.

It'll also extend the operation of the scheme through to 31 December 2029, which will ensure long-term certainty for workers, providers, children and their families. The bill also recognises a very simple reality. If we want a high-quality early childhood education system, we must invest in the people who deliver it—that is, the people who work in the early childhood education system.

Australia's early educators have long been underpaid despite, as I said, that critical work that they do and the role that they play in children's development and school readiness. They're educators, carers, mentors and role models. They support children through their earliest years of learning and help lay the foundations for future successes.

Investing in their wages is not just the right thing to do for workers but the right thing to do for the children that they educate, as well as their families and the broader community, because a good education with good staff means there's a spin-off effect for the entire broader community. When services can attract and retain skilled staff, children receive consistent, high-quality care and families have greater confidence in the system.

Importantly, this additional funding remains tied to the commitment from participating services to limit fee increases. This is a critical element of the policy. As we know, families are already managing significant cost-of-living pressures, and the government has made it clear that increasing wages for educators should not come at the expense of parents.

By linking the funding support to limits on fee increases, this measure is then expected to save the average family about $1,500 over the next two years. That means better wages for educators and relief for families with young children. It's a practical measure that supports both workforce retention and affordability.

The bill also strengthens the government's commitment to quality and safety within early childhood education. For the first time, the legislation establishes a specific funding condition linked to quality area 2 of the National Quality Standard, which relates to children's health and safety. This, again, is a significant reform.

It recognises that quality education and safe environments go hand in hand. Families rightly expect that, when they leave their children in the care of an early learning service, those children will be supported in an environment that prioritises their wellbeing, development and safety. That's very important, and this legislation helps reinforce that expectation, which is an expectation that all parents would have.

As the federal member for Adelaide, I know how important early childhood services are to working families throughout our community and how important they are for children's education. As a father of two boys who both went to early education centres from the age of two, 2½ or three onwards, I know how important it is to families. Today I'm a grandfather with grandchildren who have all gone through that system.

So it is important. I've seen it firsthand, and I've seen the changes over the years, from basically a childcare centre where kids were taken because their parents worked to an early education centre where children actually learn and it becomes part of our education system. As I said, the earlier we put children through early education courses, the better.

All the research that's been done here in this nation and across the world shows the success rate of those kids in going through school and securing good jobs et cetera. It is so important, and it shows that the earlier the better. These services are not simply childcare facilities, as they were once known.

They are an essential part of the modern community infrastructure and also an essential part of our education, and they provide families with certainty and opportunity. The educators who work in these services deserve to know that their work is valued, and we are valuing that work with the pay increases. Parents deserve confidence that experienced educators will remain in the sector and have continuity, and children deserve the very best start in life.

So this bill is about fairness and opportunity, including fairness for educators, who have dedicated their careers to nurturing the next generation. We've seen them in all our electorates. We've all visited early childhood education centres and seen the great work and the commitment by these educators.

When you look at some of the conditions that they worked in previously, you see that it's through commitment that they were there—commitment because they wanted to do the right thing. I take my hat off to early childhood centre workers. A few years ago, their union ran a campaign, 'Walk in our shoes'.

I remember that for an hour I went to an early childhood education centre where we read to the kids, made sure they had their fruit and played games. I've got to say it was only one hour and I was absolutely exhausted after the one hour. So these people deserve a wage rise.

They deserve every single cent. As I was saying, the future of our nation begins in those early learning centres. When we invest in early childhood educators, we invest in children; when we invest in children, we invest in families; and, when we invest in families, we invest in a stronger, fairer and more prosperous Australia.

Every day, early childhood educators help children learn. They help them grow and prepare for school. They help shape confidence, curiosity, communication skills and a lifelong love of learning.

They are among the first teachers a child will ever have, and they play a critical role in supporting families during some of the most important years of a child's development. Yet, despite the importance of their work, early educators have historically, as I said, been undervalued and underpaid. That's why this Albanese government took action.

On 8 August 2024, the government announced that it would fund a 15 per cent wage increase for early childhood education and care workers, recognising both the importance of the profession and the workforce challenges being faced across the sector. At the time, services right across Australia were struggling to attract and retain staff. Providers were delaying expansion plans, childcare centres were closing rooms, enrolments were being capped and families were finding it harder to access the care that they needed, because services simply could not find enough educators.

I had this told to me firsthand when I visited some of the centres in my electorate, like the Goodstart childcare centre in Plympton, Lady Gowrie, Unley Community Centre, Little Oxford (Unley) Montessori and Precious Cargo Collinswood. All of them back then were saying the same thing to me. So it's good to see this turn around and have a go at keeping a stable workforce.

It's not just a workforce issue; it's a quality issue and a safety issue. Children thrive when they can build trust and consistent relationships with the educators who care for them. Parents want certainty that their child will be greeted by familiar faces and supported by experienced professionals who understand their individual needs.

Since the worker retention payment was introduced, Australia has seen approximately 2,000 additional early childhood education and care workers enter the workforce, representing an increase of around eight per cent. Job vacancies across the sector have fallen by nearly 31 per cent. That's a real difference in all of our electorates, in all the early childhood education centres.

The number of services operating under staffing waivers has dropped from 8.9 per cent to 4.3 per cent, and, importantly for families, fees at services receiving the payment have increased at around half the rate of services not participating in the program, and that's a remarkable outcome—higher wages for educators, greater workforce stability, improved access for families and lower cost pressures than would otherwise have been experienced.

That's why, on 17 June 2026, this year, the Albanese government announced it would lock in these wage increases for another two years, and the bill gives effect to that commitment. It provides an additional $3.6 billion to extend support through the worker retention payment and extends the operation of the scheme through to 31 December 2029. When combined with the government's support for minimum wage increases, the results are significant.

A typical full-time educator will receive around $255 more pay per week compared to December 2024. For early childhood teachers, that increase rises to approximately $410 more per week. They are significant rises, and rightly so and rightly deserved by the people in the sector.

This is real support for workers who have been doing it tough for a long, long time in this industry. I'm glad that they're getting fairly recognised for the work that they do every day with the next generation of Australia's young people, who are so important to our nation. Importantly, these wage increases are not coming at the expense of families, which is extremely important.

Funding will continue to be tied to commitments from participating services to limit those fee increases, and this approach strikes the right balance. It supports workers, it supports providers, it supports families, and, most importantly, it supports education for our youngest Australians. The bill is about recognising the value of those who help give Australian children the very, very best start in life, and it's about supporting a workforce that has too often been undervalued.

I've seen this with my own eyes when visiting many of these centres in the years that I've been here in parliament. It's about ensuring that quality early education remains affordable and accessible for families, and it's also about investing in the very important next generation of Australians. These kids that are attending these centres are the next generation.

They will be the leaders in our community. As I said, an early start, with all the research internationally and here in Australia, shows that we're giving that child the best chance for their life. When we invest in early childhood educators, we're not simply just funding wages; we are investing in children, we are investing in families, and we are investing in Australia's future.

That's why this legislation deserves the support of this House.