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) (19:25): We have been really pleased with the take-up of the program; 215,000 educators receiving the payment is a huge number of educators, and 80 per cent of services are covered by the worker retention payment. We encourage providers to engage with the department and to sign up to the worker retention payment.

We want more educators to get the benefits of the payment. Ultimately, it's our expectation that providers and workers will continue on in this next round of the worker retention payment. Again, we encourage more providers and more workers to join.

Ultimately, that is something for workers and providers to consider and work on together.