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

Mrs PHILLIPS (Gilmore) (11:51): I just love getting out in my community, meeting local families and talking with local workers about all the different ways our government is helping them. One thing I really, really enjoy is popping into my local early learning centres, joining in the kids' activities and chatting with our wonderful, enthusiastic early childhood educators and families.

During Early Learning Matters Week, I visited the Cornerstone Early Learning Academy in Nowra, where I met Elizabeth. Energetic, young and committed to the children in her care, Elizabeth began her career as an early childhood educator at Cornerstone seven years ago, and she is now the centre manager. Elizabeth and other staff at the centre love their work, and they have welcomed the 15 per cent pay rise for early educators, which she says has helped to attract new staff and retain existing staff.

And she welcomes the extension of the pay rise for another two years to continue to bolster our early education workforce. It was so great to hear firsthand how this government is helping our early childhood educators, who play such a vital role in supporting the development and wellbeing of our little ones. Since the worker retention payment was announced, we've seen around an eight per cent increase in early childhood educators, and job vacancies have decreased by almost 31 per cent, which shows our plan is working.

We're getting more educators into the sector and helping families with more access to child care and cheaper child care. It's so important that the pay rise is locked in for another two years so our educators, our centres, our families and, importantly, our children can continue to reap the benefits. The funding extension will save the average family around $1,500 over the next two years.

When combined with the government's support for minimum wage rises, a typical full-time educator will earn around $255 more per week, while early childhood teachers will have around $410 more in the pocket each week, compared to December 2024. It's great news that, for the first time, employees in all CCS approved services will also be eligible for the payment.

Importantly, this funding will continue to be tied to a commitment from services receiving the payment to limit fee increases for parents. This is another way we're helping families with the cost of living. The Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026 also builds on this government's commitment to strengthen quality and safety in early learning.

From July 2027, if services don't meet the national quality standard when it comes to safety, their funding may be cut or suspended. Services will be required to meet quality area 2, relating to children's health and safety, under the national quality standard. Around 95 per cent of services already meet this standard, but we want that number to increase because child safety in every centre is vital.

During my visit to the Cornerstone Early Learning Academy, I danced with the children, built block towers and got messy making ice cream in the playground, but early childhood education isn't all about changing nappies and finger painting. Every day, our incredible educators right across Gilmore and around the country nurture our kids and lay the foundations for lifelong learning with some amazing activities and experiences.

At Cornerstone, the kids get involved in their community and take part in things like National Science Week, Dental Health Week and R U OK?Day. They learn about thankfulness and global unity on World Gratitude Day, and even try their hands at Auslan on the International Day of Sign Languages. That is so good.

Our kids are learning about life, our environment, their health and the big wide world all thanks to our early childhood educators. The children at Cornerstone have also been exploring the rich culture, language and traditions of the Dharawal people through storytelling, song and dance. These meaningful experiences support children to develop a deeper understanding of the importance of country and culture while fostering respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the world's oldest living culture.

Over 10 weeks, the kids were lucky to be involved in the Ready Steady Go Kids sports program, where they improved their movement and ball handling skills. They learnt about teamwork and fair play while playing golf, basketball, soccer and athletics. Our early learning centres really are beautiful, amazing and inspiring places.

As a mum of four young adults, it's incredible to see how much childhood learning has changed over the last two decades. Today, children enjoy all sorts of interesting experiences, with visits from mobile libraries and mobile zoos where they have an opportunity to borrow books and learn about native wildlife, including snakes, frogs and baby crocodiles. During a recent visit to ECTARC Jerry Bailey preschool at Shoalhaven Heads, I was delighted to join the children for an interactive experience with marine creatures, like starfish, crabs and even a baby shark.

It was so wonderful to watch the children listen, touch and discover interesting facts about the animals and gain a sense of respect for the natural world. It's our educators that create these experiences which provide meaningful opportunities for children to learn and to develop a growing sense of curiosity about the world around them. While I really loved the marine creatures, I was invited to Jerry Bailey for their 40th birthday celebrations, and what a great afternoon spent with the kids, their families, community members and, of course, the wonderful early childhood educators celebrating this terrific milestone.

I explored their beautiful gardens, and one of the children showed me their native beehive. Our early education centres are always buzzing with interesting, fun and educational activities. Recently, the children and educators at ECTARC Sanctuary Point Early Education and Care Service sent me some very special messages and gorgeous artwork.

The children shared what they love most about preschool, what makes them feel happy and safe, what they enjoy learning and what they would like adults and community leaders to know about early learning. It's easy to see why children's voices are so important. Quality early learning starts with valuing and supporting our early educators that go above and beyond for the youngest members of our community.

Our 15 per cent pay rise is helping build and retain the stable, dedicated workforce children deserve, because a quality workforce is the foundation of quality and safety in early learning. The Albanese government is supporting 600 workers in 54 early learning centres across Gilmore and opening up more places for local families. We're providing security for operators and more jobs, and I'm seeing new centres popping up all around my region which will support working and studying parents.

In fantastic news, Cornerstone, which I mentioned earlier on, has started construction on a second centre at Illaroo, and new Little Zak's centres have also opened their doors in Bomaderry and Kiama. The Cullunghutti Aboriginal Child and Family Centre at Nowra is so popular with local First Nations families that they're also looking to expand and open the second centre at Bomaderry.

Cullunghutti provides an Aboriginal community controlled early childhood education and care service where young ones are being taught by educators who share their culture. This is a gorgeous, family oriented environment where little people can grow up strong in culture, connected to country and proud of who they are. It's a vital hub that provides culturally safe wraparound programs to support families and strengthen cultural connections.

The educators at Cullunghutti are dedicated and committed to supporting Aboriginal children. I want to give special congratulations to their early years development consultant, the amazing Marg Sutherland. After five decades working in early childhood development, Marg was named the AbSec Practitioner of the Year at the AbSec conference held in Port Macquarie earlier this year.

She also won the award in 2021. What a local legend! Our early childhood educators across the country do some of the most important work—looking after, nurturing and educating our youngest ones—and that's why they should be paid fairly for what they do.

They help build vital skills for life, for big school and beyond. Twice I've had the pleasure of welcoming Minister Marles, both in his capacity as Acting Prime Minister and in his capacity as Minister for Defence, to Gilmore's early learning centres. Earlier this year we visited ECTARC Clipper Road Education and Care Service at Nowra to meet some of the children and talk with staff about our government's historic 15 per cent pay rise.

The minister also joined me on a visit to the One Tree Defence Childcare Unit Tingira. With HMAS Albatross close by, Tingira plays an extremely vital role in supporting local Defence families. It's a close-knit community and a fabulous facility, and I just love visiting.

We're working hard to make early education and care more affordable, more accessible and safer. Under those opposite, early education services were forced to delay their expansion plans, because they couldn't get staff. Trained professionals, mostly women, were leaving the childcare industry because they could earn more packing supermarket shelves.

We're turning things around. We've also introduced the three-day guarantee, to make sure every child who needs it is eligible for three days of subsidised early learning each week, no matter what their parents do. A big thankyou to all our wonderful early childhood educators—we want you to know that we're backing you.

I want local families in Gilmore to know that I support you. Today I support this bill because building a strong community starts with our youngest, and that is something I'm always passionate about because children are our future, after all. Debate adjourned.