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

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (10:04): It's interesting, when you think about child care and regional Australia, to note that, on the cover of the GrainGrowers's annual report of 2022-23, you have a picture of a young girl in a cropping paddock and that the organisation felt the need to push for child care as its No. 1 priority. This, I think, underlines just how vital this is in rural, regional and remote Australia.

Then, when you read the GrainGrowers's report of May 2023, its submission to the Productivity Commission on early childhood education and care, it says this, as the very first paragraph: Lack of access to child care is an issue impacting grain farming parents across Australia. GrainGrowers provided a submission to the Productivity Commission on Early Childhood Education and Care. … … … GrainGrowers is a voice for Australian grain farmers with grower members across Australia.

Our vision is to build a more sustainable and profitable grains industry for the benefit of Australian grain farmers. GrainGrowers welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the public consultation to the Inquiry into Early Childhood Education and Care. That is all well and good, and it's important.

When you have an organisation such as GrainGrowers acknowledging that the most important aspect for its members is child care, you know that something is right, and you know that something is also palpably wrong. I know the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026 deals with the wages and the pay conditions for our early childhood teachers, and I acknowledge that, yes, they should be paid a decent and appropriate wage, because they are looking after our most important asset—that being our children or our grandchildren.

I appreciate that work has been done in this regard to ensure that we don't have early childhood teachers leaving the industry simply because they can't afford to sustain themselves in a cost-of-living crisis or because other sectors of the economy are getting paid more for, perhaps, doing jobs that some could argue are not as important as theirs. I do understand that.

As I say, we are in a cost-of-living crisis, and it is difficult for anyone, whether it's in a capital city or remote Australia, to make ends meet. I was talking to GrainGrowers's Dave McKeon at the time—he's no longer with the organisation—when he presented this report and spoke of the importance of child care in the regions, and I must admit I was frankly surprised that there would be this focus from that organisation on this issue.

When you are talking to GrainGrowers and other organisations of a like mind, you expect them to talk about transport and roads, and you expect them to talk about the availability of silos, accessibility to ports, the vagaries of the weather and all of those things. You don't expect them, first up, to come to you and say, 'Childcare access is our main focus.' I commend the GrainGrowers for their early childhood education and care policy of May 2023, the work that they did in their annual report of 2022-23 and their ongoing advocacy for child care, because it absolutely underlines the importance of this issue, particularly in regional Australia.

I know many, most or all Labor members who've stood in this debate and who will follow me will talk about wage justice, about the Fair Work Commission and about their advocacy to ensure wage justice and the like, but the access to child care is just as important as anything else in this debate, because, in regional Australia, there is not the access to child care.

Whilst I know Labor also talks up the affordability of child care, and they'll talk about Labor's policies in this regard, it is the availability of child care in regional areas which is at the nub of the issue, or should be at the centre of it. The GrainGrowers report of May 2024 states quite clearly: Access to quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) services promotes children's cognitive and socio-emotional development, laying the foundation for academic success and fostering important life skills such as communication, problem-solving, and collaboration.

All of that is true—we know that—but I'll tell you what it also does. Access to child care provides parents with choice. Yes, it provides farming families and others who live in rural communities the opportunity to enable their children to be their best selves, but it also allows them to go out and earn a wage, and, if it's possible in their family set-up, ensure they can have two incomes coming in.

In the case of a single parent, in some cases it's about having a job at all. If they don't have that access to—access being the important word—and availability of child care, then their opportunities for economic freedom, for getting ahead in the world and for meeting the demands of a cost-of-living crisis are very limited. The GrainGrowers May 2024 report further states: Grain growing takes place in rural, regional and remote areas of Australia, where children and families experience more limited access to a range of quality ECEC— that being early childhood education and care— services relative to those living in metropolitan centres, and in some instances, have no access at all.

If GrainGrowers can acknowledge that, then the government should also do what it can to support those regional communities where there is market failure. Because—do you know what?—regional communities sustain this country. Regional communities grow the food, grow the fibre, mine the resources and keep the lights on in this country.

And yet not a lot of people in metropolitan Australia and not a lot of people in this place readily acknowledge that as much as they should. They just do not. Maybe it's because they just don't understand; maybe it's because they just don't know; or maybe it's because they just don't care.

Access to quality childhood education, preschool and, indeed, after-school care when the children get a little bit older is so important in regional Australia. I cannot emphasise that enough. The GrainGrowers May 2024 report continues: Access to ECEC supports working parents living within grain growing regions by enabling them to pursue employment and education opportunities, thereby helping to alleviate workforce shortages in the grains industry and broader supply chain, and allows for greater economic productivity for our communities.

Lockhart is famous for having Tim Fischer AC, the late, great Nationals leader and former deputy prime minister as one of its famous sons. He had a property at Boree Creek. He loved Lockhart Shire.

It wasn't that long ago that Lockhart's childcare access disappeared and the community was left high and dry when it came to access to child care. The community rallied and the problem was sorted out, but it brought home to many the importance of availability. Affordability is one thing, and it's good that we're talking about it.

Wage justice is something that is of critical importance too, and I acknowledge that, but so too is access and availability. I cannot place enough emphasis on that because, if you don't have access and availability, then it doesn't matter how much you pay and it doesn't matter how much the Fair Work Commission might state that a worker in that sector is worth.

If you don't have access, you don't have availability, you don't have opportunity and you don't have those parents able to drop those kids off in a safe, good environment—an environment that's even there in the first place. Interestingly, the report goes on to state: 'Universal not Uniform': Access to ECEC is a universal right for all Australians. Families in rural and remote areas must be guaranteed access to quality ECEC.

However, the method of delivery will require a focus on tailored place-based solutions in light of the geographic and economic diversity or rural and remote areas. Of course, that's important too. As the report goes on to state: The quality of ECEC in rural and remote areas should be comparable to the quality of ECEC offered in metropolitan centres.

I've been going on about this. It's not just childcare access. Of course, it's everything.

It's general practitioners, it's health specialists, it's everything per capita. Why should rural communities be in any way diminished? Why should the opportunities not be there simply because they're a long way from the bright city lights of our major capital cities?

You'd understand this better than most, Deputy Speaker, member for Lingiari. You would understand this because you've got that lived experience. I'm not verballing you; I have great respect for you.

I've been to the Northern Territory, and I've been to your electorate. I was just there last week. I understand and I know that the further you get away from the bright city lights, the harder it is for our families to access all manner of services, whether it's health, whether it's childcare access or whether it's transport options.

It just makes it immeasurably more difficult. The point of this is that it's our communities, member for Lingiari, that are keeping this nation going. It's our communities that are providing the balance of payments.

It's our communities that are putting food on the table of metropolitan Australians who, somehow, sometimes, just don't understand the difficulties there are when it comes to rurality. The GrainGrowers report states: The formation of a broader ECEC Workforce Strategy inclusive of initiatives such as wage subsidies, educator professional development pathways, relocation incentives, and professional support.

They're talking about that. They're promoting that. They're advocating for that.

I commend the GrainGrowers for their advocacy in this regard. I know, when it comes to early childhood education—I appreciate that the Minister for Education has talked about this and, moreover, done something about this on a national level—there is a great concern about some of the reports that have come out of early learning centres with some of the workers in there doing the wrong thing by children.

Parents need to know that, when they drop their most precious loved ones, their children, off to a childcare centre, they will get the same love, support and respect that they do in their homes. Australian children deserve it and are entitled to it. We must do everything we can, and so must the courts.

These nefarious characters who do the wrong thing by children should never see the light of day again, quite frankly. I commend the education minister for what he has done to ensure that, at a national level, we are doing the right thing. I implore the states to also ensure that our children are safe, that are children are protected and that, in the early childhood area, we do everything humanly possible to make sure that they have the best quality of early childhood care, and this bill goes to that.