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

Senator WALSH (Victoria—Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth) (19:08): Let me step that out for you. In the middle of next year, the award underpinning the sector will reach the 15 per cent pay rise that we are providing through the worker retention payment. That will continue through to the middle of 2028.

From the middle of 2028, there are, on average, further significant pay rises as part of the gender undervaluation decisions of the Fair Work Commission. There is work underway in the Department of Education right now as part of the service delivery prices project to understand the true cost of delivering early education and care, and the changes to the children's services award which I just described to you will form part of that analysis over the next few years.

The findings from that work will come to government at the end of this year, and that service delivery prices project work will allow us to consider longer term funding arrangements once we have that information. This funding, this extension of the worker retention payment, essentially makes sure that workers are paid fairly and keeps costs down for families while we do this important work.