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

Ms THWAITES (Jagajaga) (16:41): Strong early childhood education helps build strong families, strong communities and, of course, a stronger Australia. Every day across Australia, early childhood educators help children to learn, to grow and to develop the skills they will carry through life. These are the people who support children's development and wellbeing at one of the most important stages of their lives.

They help children build confidence, form relationships and develop the foundations that prepare them for school and for life. They support families. They give parents confidence that their children are learning, thriving and being cared for.

They help families to balance work and caring responsibilities. They help create opportunities for parents to participate in the workforce, to get an education and to contribute to their communities. This is work that matters.

It matters to children. It matters to families. It matters to communities, and it matters to our economy.

It's also something that I understand firsthand. Before my two children started school—the youngest just started school this year—my family very much relied on local early childhood educators. Like so many parents, I know the trust families place in the people who help to care for and educate our children.

I know the relationships that our children build with their educators, and I have seen firsthand the difference those educators make not only to children but to entire families. The work these educators do is skilled. It is important.

It is hard, and it deserves to be valued accordingly. Yet for too long it has not been. Before this government, for too long, early childhood educators—a workforce which is made up overwhelmingly of women—were underpaid despite the enormous contribution they make to Australian children, to families and to communities.

This matters because it's about how we value things. It's about how we talk about what we value in our society. If we say that children deserve the best possible start in life, we must value the people who help to provide that.

If we say that families deserve support, we must value the people families rely upon every day. If we say that quality early childhood education matters, we must value the workforce that makes it possible. That is why our government funded a 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators and care workers, and it's why this bill is so important.

This bill provides an additional $3.6 billion to the wage justice special account, and it extends that account through until 31 December 2029. It locks in support for higher wages for another two years and continues reforms that are already making a difference across the sector and across communities. I have absolutely seen the importance of this reform throughout my electorate.

Across Jagajaga, more than 100 early learning services support thousands of local children and families. I've personally visited many of these centres in Heidelberg, Watsonia, Ivanhoe, Eltham and right across the electorate. I've spoken and I speak with educators, with centre directors and with families about the challenges facing the sector and about the importance of retaining experienced staff.

Again and again, I've been hearing the same message: workforce stability matters. Children benefit from having consistent relationships with educators who know them, who understand their needs and who can support their development. Families benefit when services can recruit and retain staff.

Services benefit when experienced educators choose to stay in the profession. Educators deserve the confidence that they can build a long-term career doing work that they care deeply about. When the worker retention payment was announced in 2024, the sector was facing significant workforce shortages.

Services were struggling to recruit staff. Some were limiting enrolments, some were delaying expansion and many were finding it increasingly difficult to retain experienced educators. Since the changes we've made, there have been around 20,000 more people working in early childhood education and care.

Job vacancies have fallen by almost 31 per cent. The proportion of services operating with a staff waiver has fallen from 8.9 per cent to 4.3 per cent. Behind those numbers are real people—people who've chosen to stay in a profession that they value and love, people who can now see a future for themselves in this sector, people whose experience is delivering better outcomes for our children and for families every single day.

This bill will ensure that that progress continues. For the first time, employees in all childcare subsidy approved services will be eligible for the payment. That extends the reach of this support across the sector, and it continues the work of recognising and valuing the workforce at the heart of early childhood education.

This reform is about supporting educators and families. Services receiving the payment must commit to limiting fee increases. That is an important safeguard.

It will make sure that the support that we are providing for higher wages is not simply passed on through higher costs for families. It will help to make sure that early learning continues to be affordable. I am very aware that this reform is also about women's economic security because, for generations, work that has been traditionally undertaken by women has been undervalued by our communities and our society.

Care work has been undervalued. Education work has been undervalued. Too often, the women who have undertaken this important work have been expected to accept lower pay despite how essential it is to our society and to our economy.

I really do think that early childhood education is one of the clearest examples in this space. This is a highly skilled workforce. It requires expertise, responsibility and professionalism.

On top of all of that, it requires care and a great deal of patience. Higher wages help recognise that reality. They provide greater economic security for the women working in the sector every day.

The benefits do not stop there. Affordable and accessible early childhood education also supports workforce participation across the economy. As I said, it gives families greater flexibility and it gives parents greater choice.

It supports people, particularly women, who are often the primary carers, to participate more fully in the workforce if that's what they choose to do. That's why this reform is good policy—good social policy, good economic policy, good policy for Australian families and communities. It values care work while supporting workforce participation.

It supports educators while supporting families. It recognises that these goals are not competing objectives; they actually reinforce each other. We are also making it clear that quality and safety are fundamental.

Every family deserves confidence that the place caring for and educating their child is safe. Every family deserves confidence that high standards are being maintained. Every family deserves confidence that public investment is supporting quality outcomes.

This bill strengthens the conditions attached to Commonwealth funding. From July 2027, services receiving funding will be required to meet quality area 2 of the national quality standard, relating specifically to children's health and safety. Around 95 per cent of services already meet this standard.

This reform will help to ensure quality and safety remain at the heart of the system. There is a genuine difference in values at the heart of this debate. Our government believes early childhood education is essential social and economic infrastructure, and we believe that families should be supported to make the choices that work best for them, but not everyone shares those views.

Recently at the National Press Club, Senator Pauline Hanson questioned why early childhood educators need qualifications and questioned whether they deserved higher pay. Those comments reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of both the work educators do and the contribution they make. Early childhood educators are not simply supervising children.

They're helping children learn. They're supporting children's development. They are preparing children for school.

They are identifying challenges early, supporting families and undertaking work that requires skill, training and professionalism. So when people like Senator Hanson question whether these workers deserve fair pay, they're really questioning whether we value the work itself. Labor's answer on this is clear: we absolutely do.

We value the people educating and caring for Australia's children. We believe their wages should reflect the value of the contribution they make. We've also heard criticism of support for early childhood education, more broadly.

Senator Matt Canavan has argued that government support encourages parents to go to work and let someone else look after their children. I think that characteristic does not reflect the reality of modern Australian families. Families do make different choices, and many families rely on early childhood education so they can work, study, run a business and have the income that allows them to take care of their family.

Those choices should be respected, not judged. As I said, I am someone who absolutely relied on local early childhood educators when my own children were young. I know the confidence that those services give families.

I know the skills and the best start in life that they give to our young children. I know the opportunities they create, and I know the difference they make in people's lives. That should be respected by this parliament, and that is what this government is doing.

More broadly, I think this bill helps us shape what kind of country we want to be—a country where we value the people who educate and care for our children, a country where we support families to participate in work and community life and a country where we recognise that care work is skilled work and is deserving of fair pay. It helps us to become a country where children benefit from experienced educators who are supported to stay in the profession and to contribute.

Labor is very clear that this is the kind of country we are building and will continue to build. By extending support for higher wages, by strengthening the quality and safety conditions, by continuing the requirement that participating services in this scheme limit fee increases, we are making sure that these services are providing the best start for our young people while also providing broader support for families and communities.

The educators I meet across Jagajaga care deeply every day about the children and families they support. They work hard. As I said, they do long hours.

They require great patience and great skill. It is important, skilled, valuable work. These educators deserve to know that their contribution is recognised.

They deserve to know that their work is respected, and they deserve a government that backs them. This bill and this government does exactly that, and I commend it to the House.