Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] Getting the details right or being on top of your brief is not a core strength of the Morrison-Joyce government. It's not something we see a lot of from the minister for education either. In the last sitting week he had to move amendments to his own bill because it was incorrect. And after weeks of pleading by families, educators and early education services, he's finally announced some support after Sydney has been in lockdown for over two months—two months of families paying the price for this minister's lack of attention.

Unfortunately, his lack of attention to early education and care continues. Yesterday, the minister was asked if he knew how many early educators were vaccinated. The minister's response:

No, I don't know that figure. I mean, I would hope that all of those child care workers would go and get vaccinated. You know, ring up, go and speak to your GP today.

There's a lot to unpack in this. The federal government has no idea how many educators there are or how many have been vaccinated, and it hectors them to go and get a vaccine. This is something early educators had been begging for since the rollout began. It's not like early educators haven't been trying to get vaccinated, Minister, but many of them have not had access until very recently.