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

Dr TRISH COOK (Bullwinkel) (17:46): Every single morning across this country—in our outer suburbs, across our major cities and throughout our regional and remote communities—thousands of early childhood educators open the doors to our early learning centres. They do not simply unlock rooms; they literally unlock potential. Every single day these educators help Australia's youngest citizens learn, grow, explore and build the foundational skills they need to thrive at school and at life.

For generations, there was an outdated, misguided perception in the country that early childhood education was merely childminding—a convenient holding pattern while parents went to work. But we know better. Science tells us that 90 per cent of brain development occurs in the first five years of a child's life.

What an educator does when reading a book, when teaching emotional regulation, when guiding social interactions and when nurturing curiosity is nation-building work. It's one of the most vital, consequential jobs in Australia. And, for too long, governments treated that dedication as an excuse for poor pay—as with many other feminised caring professions, I might add.

Our early childhood educators were being paid some of the lowest wages in the country despite carrying some of the greatest responsibilities, and in effect they were subsidising the system with their own financial security. This government believes in the fundamental truth that, in all jobs, you should be fairly paid for your work. We remember when, a few short years ago, the early childhood education sector was facing a catastrophic workforce crisis.

Qualified, passionate, experienced educators were walking away from the jobs that they loved not because they didn't care but because they simply couldn't afford to stay. They could not pay their rent. They could not meet the rising cost of groceries.

They could earn more stocking supermarket shelves than shaping young minds. The consequences of that neglect have rippled through our entire economy and society. Services were forced to delay expansion plans.

Worse still, centres were closing rooms and capping enrolments because they physically could not find the staff to meet their statutory child-to-educator ratios. Parents who desperately wanted to return to work or to take an extra shift were told there was no place for their child. Workforce retention and workforce stability are critical pillars of quality and safety in childhood development.

A child does not thrive when they are met by a rotating door of unfamiliar faces each week. Children need consistency. They need stable, secure, trusting relationships with educators who will guide them.

That's why, on 8 August 2024, the Albanese Labor government took decisive action. We announced that we would fund a historic 15 per cent wage increase for early childhood education and care workers through the worker retention payment. The name says it all: the worker retention payment.

We made a promise to back our educators, and we delivered two years of proven success. There were sceptics when we introduced the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Act 2024. Critics questioned whether it would work.

Today, the evidence is in: the policy hasn't just worked; it has fundamentally transformed the sector. Since the worker retention payment was introduced in 2024, there are now around 20,000 more early childhood educators across our early learning centres. That's an increase of roughly eight per cent in our frontline educator workforce—20,000 workers.

The job vacancy rate in the sector has plummeted by almost 31 per cent, and centres that were once desperate for staff are now building reliable, dedicated teams. The percentage of services forced to operate under a staffing waiver has also been cut by more than half, dropping dramatically from 8.9 per cent to just 4.3 per cent. Crucially, fees at centres receiving the worker retention payment grew at around half the rate of those centres that did not sign up.

The worker retention payment has achieved exactly what it was designed to do. It has rebuilt our early educator workforce, created stability for children and families and kept downward pressure on fees for hardworking Australian families. The purpose of this bill today is to lock in that progress.

You do not build a world-class early learning system by going halfway towards fixing the problem and then walking away. Reform requires continuity, certainty and enduring commitment. That is why, on 14 June 2026, the Albanese government announced that we are locking in this funded pay rise of 15 per cent for another two years to 2028.

The Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026 gives direct legislative effect to that commitment. This bill amends the 2024 act in three vital ways: it credits the special account with an additional $3.6 billion to fund the wage extension; it extends the act's sunset date to 31 December 2029, guaranteeing stability for workers and providers over the years ahead; and it expands eligibility so that, for the first time, employees in all childcare subsidy approved services will be eligible for the payment.

This ensures that no eligible early learning educator is left behind, regardless of the approved setting that they work in, be it centre based day care, outside school care, family day care or in-home care. More importantly, they are employees, not contractors. What does this mean for educators and their families?

Let's look at what this legislation means, in practical kitchen-table terms, for Australian educators. When we combine the worker retention payment with this government's persistent support for minimum and award wage rises before the Fair Work Commission, the outcome is substantial. A typical full-time early childhood educator is now earning $255 more per week than they were in December 2024, and, for qualified early childhood teachers, that figure rises to $410 more per week.

That is not spare change. That is between $13,000 to over $21,000 extra a year in take-home pay. It's the difference between an educator dreading the monthly bills and having financial breathing space.

It represents an overdue respect for a vital profession. Let's examine what it means for Australian parents and families. Under this legislation, funding continues to be strictly tied to fee-restraint commitment.

Services receiving this public investment must agree to a limit fee increase for parents. Because of this requirement, our modelling shows that this funding extension will save the average Australian family around $1,500 over the next two years. At a time when household budgets are under real pressure, this bill delivers a genuine double dividend.

It provides direct cost-of-living relief to parents while securing high-quality early learning and care for their children. Fairness for educators must walk hand in hand with absolute safety and quality for children. Parents place their most precious treasures—their babies, their toddlers and their young children—into the care of our early learning and education centres every day.

When they walk out that door to go to work or study, they must have total unshakeable confidence that their children are safe, protected and nurtured. This bill introduces a significant forward looking reform. It establishes a new object and condition of funding through the wage justice special account.

From July 2027, this bill empowers the Commonwealth to cut or suspend wage justice funding to any service that fails to meet the National Quality Standard when it comes to child safety. Specifically, services will be strictly required to meet quality area 2 under the National Quality Standard, which governs children's health and safety, including adequate supervision, nutrition, hygiene and emergency preparedness.

Currently, around 95 per cent of our services across Australia do meet this standard, and the vast majority of providers do an exceptional job day in, day out, but, when it comes to the safety of Australian children, 95 per cent is not enough. We want to see that number higher. We want it to be 100 per cent—100 per cent compliance with basic health and safety benchmarks.

Public funding must reflect public values. If a provider is taking taxpayer funds to subsidise wages, they must meet their fundamental, non-negotiable obligation to protect the health, wellbeing and safety of every child under their roof. In conclusion, this bill is about the kind of country we want Australia to be.

Do we want an Australia where the people who shape the minds and futures of our youngest generations are undervalued, underpaid and burning out? No. We want an Australia that values early educators as the nation builders that they are, where early learning is accessible, affordable for families, of the highest safety standard and built upon a strong, stable and fairly paid workforce.

The Albanese Labor government is delivering just that. We promised wage justice, and we're delivering it. We saw the tangible benefits—20,000 more workers, vacancies down by a third, fee growth halved, and room closures averted.

Now, with this extra $3.6 billion extension, we are locking in those gains to 2029, lifting pay up by up to $410 a week, putting $1,500 back in the pockets of families, expanding coverage across all CCS approved services and raising the bar for childhood safety across this nation. I want to commend the work of the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Senator the Hon.

Dr Jess Walsh, the Labor caucus and the mighty United Workers Union, who we have listened to. It shows that we have listened and heard, and we appreciate, recognise and value the work of early educators. I'm pleased to say that, as part of the whole package of reform around this area, a new ECEC centre will be built in my electorate, collocated at the Greenmount Primary School, funded by the federal government, built by the state government and to be tendered out to a not-for-profit to run it.

Parents appreciate the collocation of these early childhood education and care centres at primary schools, and that's exactly what we're delivering. I commend this bill to the House.