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

Ms JORDAN-BAIRD (Gorton) (19:26): It's an honour to follow my friend the member for Petrie in this really important debate today on the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026. She, I know, fights really hard to improve early education for the Queensland community and across Australia as well.

There are a few reasons why early childhood education is so incredibly important. The first one is obvious. Our little ones are precious, and they deserve the best early education and care we can afford them.

Early childhood education also gives families access to choice—the choice for both parents to continue working; the opportunity to earn more income for the household; and access to supports when trying to balance the millions of demands that come with parenthood. As any working family will tell you, the work-and-home juggle is a lot. When you have a dedicated early childhood team supporting your family and guiding your little one through important early milestones, the dedication of those early childhood educators and the support they provide to our young ones and to our families is truly invaluable.

Raising little ones is no easy task, and early childhood education is hard work. These workers are entrusted with our most precious loved ones and do one of the most important jobs in the country. I've spoken to many early childhood educators in my community in Melbourne's western suburbs.

These are dedicated workers—often, young women—who choose the job because they absolutely love it. They talk about the small moments: the singing; the laughter; celebrating with families as a child reaches each developmental milestone. But our local early childhood educators also tell me about the challenges, like workforce shortages, overwork and underpay.

And it's not just my local childcare workers. The challenges are being faced by the entire workforce, and at the heart of the workforce challenges is underpay. For far too long, early childhood educators have been systematically underpaid.

When we got elected into government, early childhood education and care workers had been neglected for too long. They were leaving the workforce in droves—not because this wasn't a job they loved but because it was unsustainable and they couldn't afford to live on these wages. With 40 per cent of the workforce leaving the jobs they wanted because they couldn't afford to live—as was the case in some childcare centres—we had a workforce crisis on our hands, and something needed to change.

So, two years ago, we introduced the 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood workers. Then, on 17 June this year, we announced a historic pay rise, with a $3.6 billion investment over the next two years. This bill delivers on that commitment.

Early childhood educators are trained professionals. They are trusted. They see to our kids' development, keep them safe, understand our little ones' routines, help them reach early milestones and know when to identify that something might be wrong and early intervention is needed.

Early childhood educators are such important people in our kids' lives, and they have the right to expect that their pay should reflect that level of skill, training and trust that is required. Valuing our early childhood educators also means valuing the safety, care and wellbeing of our children. Debate interrupted.