If you walk around my community in Melbourne's western suburbs, you'll notice it's full of young families. The median age of the electorate of Gorton is 35 years old. This is the age when families are settling down, buying houses, having kids and planning for the future. As more and more young families choose to call the western suburbs home, there is a greater need for quality early childhood education and care.

Last month we celebrated Early Learning Matters Week. I think we celebrated it appropriately, in Melbourne's western suburbs, by announcing a new government-built early learning centre that is coming to Rockbank. This is a partnership with both the federal and Victorian Labor governments that will see the new early learning centre co-located with the new school in Rockbank, meaning parents can avoid the double drop-off and get to work and school more easily. This is so exciting, because investments like these early childcare services support workforce participation and help more children get the best possible start in life. It's a reflection of what happens when a Labor government prioritises families, and the workers who support them, in growing suburbs like mine.

The impact of this investment is already being felt. We know that, when workers are paid fairly, they are more likely to stay in the jobs that they love. Our 15 per cent wage rise, known as the worker retention payment, has made a real difference. Since we introduced the 15 per cent pay rise, there are 20,000 more childcare workers across Australia. Job vacancies have fallen by 31 per cent, and, in some areas, job applications have increased by 30 per cent. That is what happens when you make a job more sustainable—when you make sure that people can afford to stay in the profession that they have trained for.

With this investment, we're making a difference in my own community in Melbourne's western suburbs. In Gorton, 1,110 childcare workers have received the worker retention payment. That's 1,100 workers getting recognised for the important work that they do, staying in the job that they love in the centres that families in our community rely on.

This bill gives certainty to workers and providers by extending the worker retention payment. It puts another $3.6 billion into supporting higher wages over the coming years, and it makes sure that the government can continue supporting those wages while the Fair Work Commission's increases to the children's services award are progressively implemented.

Earlier, I mentioned that the childcare workers I speak to in my community are more often than not women. This isn't just in my community. We know that this is a workforce made up overwhelmingly of women. This is an important thing to mention because the work of early childhood educators has historically been undervalued. The Productivity Commission found that early childhood teachers working in ECEC settings can hold equivalent degrees to teachers working in schools, but their median wages have historically been around 20 per cent lower. Educators have also been among the lowest paid occupations for which comparable earnings data is available. When we talk about wage justice, we are talking about correcting a structural problem. We are talking about the fact that caring for, educating and protecting our youngest Australians is skilled work. It is professional work, and it deserves pay that reflects that. Our changes don't just mean women earn more, which is another step towards closing the gender pay gap, but they also mean that women retire with more. That is what our government is working to deliver.

For a young family in Melbourne's west, child care is often one of the biggest household expenses. We're making sure that supporting workers does not come at the expense of families. That is why this funding comes with conditions. Providers receiving the worker retention payment must limit increases to childcare fees, and we know that this works. Over the first year of the program, fees at centres that received the payment increased by around half as much as fees at centres that did not participate. That is a really important outcome because we should not have a situation where we give workers a well-deserved pay rise only for families to face a massive increase in their childcare bill. This Labor government want workers to earn more, and we want families to be able to keep more of what they earn. That is why the wage support and the fee protections go hand in hand.

This bill also strengthens the quality and safety of the services children attend, because every dollar of public funding should come with the expectation that children are safe and properly cared for. Parents should be able to drop their child off at an early learning centre and know that the people caring for them are meeting the standards that we expect. This bill makes that expectation stronger. For the first time, the government will be able to make meeting quality area 2 of the National Quality Standard a condition of receiving the worker retention payment. Quality area 2 is about children's health and safety. It's about minimising risks, protecting children from harm and making sure appropriate health and safety practices are in place.

Around 95 per cent of services already meet this standard. That's really good, but it's only 95 per cent. When we're talking about the safety of children, no childcare centre should fall through the cracks, and, if a service does not meet those standards, there should be consequences. This bill allows those consequences to include the suspension or termination of grant agreements and the cessation of funding, and parents should expect nothing less.

This is also part of a much broader set of reforms this government is delivering to strengthen safety in early childhood education. Last year, we passed legislation giving the Department of Education stronger powers to cut funding to operators that do not meet quality, safety or compliance requirements. Since that legislation passed, compliance action has been taken against 919 centres. These are centres that had not met safety standards for at least five years, and 55 of those centres have now fixed the problems they had previously failed to address. It means that our policy is working. When there are consequences, providers have an incentive to lift their standards. Where providers refuse to do so, governments need to have the power to act.

In June, the government cut off funding to a service for the first time. Seven other centres have voluntarily closed. That is not about punishing providers. It's about protecting children, and it's about making sure that the standards we set are actually enforced. We have also strengthened our ability to see what is happening inside these centres. Since November last year, Australian government authorised officers have conducted more than 1,300 unannounced visits to services across the country. State and territory regulators are also stepping up their compliance work. In the last quarter, regulators undertook more than 1,500 compliance actions. That is more than double the number at the same time last year.

On 27 February, two more reforms came into force. The first was the National Early Childhood Worker Register. This is an important step because we need to know who is working in early childhood education and care. We need to be able to track workers as they move between centres and between states, and we need strong systems that help regulators identify risks.

The second reform was mandatory child safety training. This doesn't just apply to the educators working directly with children. It applies right through the organisation, from the workers on the floor all the way through to CEOs and the boards as well. More than 350,000 people have already completed the foundation training, and the next stage of child safety training has now begun. We've also banned personal mobile phones in centres, and we're trialling CCTV in more than 300 services. We're bringing together experts, including the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Centre for Child Protection and the National Office for Child Safety, to help guide us with this work.

All up, our government is investing an additional $226 million in child safety reforms, while the states and territories have committed more than $270 million to strengthen quality and safety across the early childhood education sector.

And now we know that investment is working. The workforce is growing, vacancies are falling and more people are choosing to stay in this profession. Our government knows that early childhood education is essential infrastructure for families. We believe the workers who deliver it deserve to be paid fairly. We believe parents deserve affordable access to quality early education and care, and we believe every child deserves to be safe. You can't have a strong early childhood education system without a strong workforce, and you can't have a strong workforce if people cannot afford to stay in the profession.

I want the families in Melbourne's west to know that, as our community grows, we are making sure the right infrastructure is there to support it. We are making sure that, as families move into suburbs like Rockbank and Kings Park, they have access to the services they need. We're investing in the workforce, which is an investment in the infrastructure of our community.

This bill is about whether an educator can afford to stay in the profession they love. It's about whether a parent can afford to go to work, knowing their child is being cared for, and about whether a child can walk through the doors of an early learning centre and be safe, supported and given the opportunity to thrive. That is the kind of early childhood education system we should be building. I commend this bill to the House.

I want to support the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026 because every single day, every morning, there are families right around Australia who are dropping their kids off to early childhood education and care. They're putting those children, those precious little children, in the hands of highly professional workers who become more than just a support for those families; they become family members themselves. Those parents trust these educators to care for those children, to keep them safe, to help them learn and grow and to support them through some of the most important years of their lives.

We know just how much brain development happens before a child turns five, and making sure that that brain development is stimulated, that it is supported, is absolutely vital to preparing those children for school. That work literally holds our communities together, because, if families can't access affordable, reliable child care, parents can't participate fully in the workforce—and, of course, kids miss out too.

Early childhood education doesn't just prepare children for school; it prepares them for life. It helps them to develop confidence. It helps them make friends. My daughter is 25, and her best friend is the best friend she met when she was 10 months old in early childhood education and care. I'm sure that's not an unusual story. Children learn how to be patient, how to take turns and how to express empathy with other children. Early childhood education and care encourages curiosity and enhances the social skills of our children. It is an enormous responsibility, and for way too long the people who have done this critical work, mostly women, have not received the recognition or the pay that they deserve.

Back in August 2024, our government announced it would fund a 15 per cent wage increase for early childhood workers through the worker retention payment. We did that because we know that this sector was under significant strain. Services across the country were struggling to attract and retain staff and, as a result, families couldn't get the care they needed. It was hard to find workers for early childhood education and care—not because the workforce didn't love the work. They do love the work, but, when you can earn more stacking shelves overnight at Woolies than you can caring for our nation's children, there is something wrong with that system.

The worker retention payment has already made a huge difference. It's meant more educators in classrooms. It means greater stability for children and lower costs for families. This legislation builds on that success by extending funding for these wage increases for a further two years, something that will benefit around 1,300 workers in my electorate alone. When you combine that with our support for minimum wage rises, it will see early childhood teachers earning an extra $410 a week and full-time educators earning an extra $255 a week, a substantial difference for those families and those households.

But this bill isn't just about improving wages, important as that is. It's about ensuring quality, stability and safety in the sector. Across Australia, early educators are on the front line when it comes to keeping vulnerable children safe and identifying signs of abuse or neglect. We rely on them to understand when a child may be at risk, to make difficult judgements about their safety and to raise concerns in a timely manner. That requires experience; it requires training; it requires confidence and professional judgement; and, crucially, it requires a stable workforce, because among the things that early childhood educators are trained to look for are dramatic changes in a child's behaviour that might indicate that there's something wrong or that they might be at risk, either in the early childhood setting or at home. That's why investment in workforce retention is so very important. When experienced educators leave the sector, we lose more than workers; we lose the relationships, knowledge, expertise and trust that keep children safe. Safety sits at the heart of this legislation.

This bill introduces a new object and condition of funding through the wage justice special account, building on the government's commitment to strengthen quality and safety in early learning. From July 2027, services that fail to meet quality area 2 of the national quality standard, relating to children's health and safety, may have their funding reduced or suspended. Almost 95 per cent of services already meet this standard, but parents should be confident that every service receiving public funding is providing children with a safe environment where they can learn and grow. This bill strengthens that expectation and reinforces the simple principle that quality early learning and children's safety go hand in hand, and it delivers a practical and balanced package as a result. More than that, it recognises the value of educators through better pay. It supports services to attract and retain skilled workers. It keeps costs down for families. It strengthens safety and quality standards for children. Early childhood education matters, and the people who do this work matter. I'm proud to support the bill, and I commend it to the House.

I rise to speak on the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026. My eldest daughter is now 18, and she hates this story. I was going to save it for her 21st, but I thought, 'Why not just share it with Australia instead?' Back when I was younger and she was a baby, it was my job to take her to the early childhood education centre every day; her mother would go to work a bit earlier. I'd take her there and she'd put on a show, 'Oh Daddy, Daddy!' There are tears, I'm feeling terrible, but I've got to go to work. I get back to the car, and I've forgotten my keys. I go, 'Alright, I'll going to have to go through all this again.' I walk back in, and she's standing in the middle of the room listening to The Wiggles, just jiving it up, happy as Larry. I sneak in to grab my keys, and she hears the keys rattle. She recognises them. She looks at me in the eye with a smile and then turns the waterworks back on. 'Great, what a day!' But I always felt a lot more comfortable after that.

The other one I want to relate comes 18 years later. During the campaign, I stepped into an early childhood education centre, as a lot of us do, and I sat down to read a book. From the back of the class I hear, 'The giant can read!' Two things come away from that: (1) giants get a rough end of the stick, and (2) this child was excited about reading. This is the point of early childhood education. They might not have access to books in their house. They might not have people reading to them at night. But on this day, the giant had come to read, and this was exciting. We sat down and we read Possum Magic. They came up and sat with me. They'd help me with words. It was a really lovely experience.

The part about Sienna which is important is that, despite the tears that were purely for show, she felt safe there. She felt safe enough to stand in the middle of the room and dance happily to The Wiggles with all of her little friends. That's the important part: a safe place where our youngest can learn, where they see the world for the first time, where they meet their first friends, where they get that first taste of education, hopefully igniting in them the curiosity that will carry them through the rest of their lives. Education is the greatest gift that we can give to anybody, and we need to make sure that our educators are properly valued and properly remunerated.

When I speak to early childhood educators, they don't tell me about a job; they tell me about the joy of the children and they tell me that this was what they always wanted to do. I sat down with a young woman in Edmonton. I said, 'What brought you into this industry?' She said, 'I was never going to do anything else.' One of the litmus tests for me is if you dreamt about doing that as a child and you get to do that as an adult, that's a pretty good job. She came to work every day, living out the best part of her childhood, spending time teaching, watching children grow, celebrating those milestones, sending them back to their parents. How many of us in here who are parents still absolutely treasure the little calendars where they've tried to write their name for the first time? The E might be backwards, the N is kind of the wrong shape, and who knows what happened to the S. Those things are great, and they sit on my fridge at home proudly.

It's because of the early childhood educators teaching our children to read, to write, to interact with each other. It is a dream worth having, and it is hard work. It is very, very much hard work. Anyone can tell you if you have a birthday party with 15 toddlers, you're not coming out of that the same. People in the early childhood education area are doing that every single day with patience, good humour and love. Our children feel safe, loved and valued in these places, so we should pay them fairly for looking after and encouraging our most precious things.

If you want to look beyond that, early childhood education is an economic development opportunity for the areas in which they are located. Leichhardt is huge. Not every town has an early childhood education centre, and the ones that don't cry out for it because parents want to get to work. They want to be able to work knowing that their children are getting that solid base to lead them into school. By placing early childhood education centres in places like Napranum, Horn Island and, hopefully, Cooktown, we are giving the parents an opportunity to get back to work, and we're also giving the children the opportunity to get that start in life that they so richly deserve. Give them that chance to fall in love with reading before it becomes a chore in year 8 when they hand you Romeo and Juliet for the first time. Make them excited. Learning through play is one of the most effective ways you can teach children. It's something that I see right across the areas. It's just the joy.

But then you start hearing stories about people whose dream it was to be an early childhood educator. They're having to take on extra work or leave the industry completely. Then there are the knock-on effects when they've had to work an extra shift at the local supermarket or pick up some extra work on the weekend; they're a bit tired when they get to work on Monday, not quite as sharp. They're not able to give the kids all that they want to give, and that hurts them personally. Or services are losing employees and rooms have to shut for the day, which sends family plans into chaos. Not every workplace is flexible. A lot of them are, and that's great, but it's hard to take a day off sometimes if you know you've got to sling Boost Juice or something of that nature. There are times when you just have to be at work. If a room is shut, it can throw your entire day into chaos. Taking that off the table, paying early childhood educators properly and respecting the work that they do, allows them to stay in the business and allows them to do what they want to do. And that allows all of us to get on with our best lives.

Now I'll move on to the numbers. As I said, every early childhood educator is helping children learn and grow every day. And that's why, on 8 August 2024, a 15 per cent wage increase for early childhood education workers was put in place. Already in Leichhardt this has benefitted over 1,200 workers. That's 1,200 families. It's helping them with their mortgage, helping them get their kids to a birthday party on a Saturday afternoon and making sure their shoes don't wear out. Some of the services had delayed expanding, and some had been closing rooms. They had been limiting enrolments for the simple reason that they couldn't find staff. This makes early childhood education attractive again, not just from the emotional perspective, the dreams that people have as a young one, but because it makes sense economically. You know you're doing a good job and that good pay will come with a good job.

Workforce retention stability is critical to the quality of education, enabling children and educators to develop a consistent and stable relationship. Children want to trust and love wholeheartedly, and they do that with people they spend time with. It's an old saying that children spell love t-i-m-e. If they've got the same educator over and over again, they'll develop that trust. And with that trust will come the opportunity to learn.

Since the worker retention payment was announced in 2024, there has been an increase of around 20,000 early childhood education workers, which is about an eight per cent increase. Job vacancies have decreased by almost 31 per cent. The percentages of services operating with a staffer waiver have fallen from 8.9 per cent to 4.3 per cent, and fees at service centres receiving the payment have grown at about half the rate of centres not signed up. This payment has worked to bolster our early educator workforce and keep the costs for families down. It's given our children the best opportunity.

On 14 June 2026 the Albanese government announced that it was locking in the pay rise for another two years to retain and grow these benefits. The funding extension will save the average family around $1,500 over that period of time. The wage justice for early childhood education and care workers is essential to ensuring that our children continue to get what they need. Combined with support for minimum wage rises, this will mean around $255 more per week for a typical full-time educator and $410 more per week for early childhood teachers compared to December 2024, when the government first implemented the pay rise. Funding will continue to be tied to a commitment from services to receive the payment to limit fee increases for families. This helps with cost-of-living pressures, but it's more than that. The bill also introduces a new object and condition of funding through the wage justice special account, which builds on the government's commitment to strengthen quality and safety in early learning.

We know that about 95 per cent of early childhood education centres are meeting those safety standards, but we also know that we need that to be higher. This bill encourages that. It ties funding to it, and if you do not meet the national quality standard then funding can be cut or suspended. Services are required to meet quality area 2, which relates to children's health and safety, under the national quality standard. This is good Labor policy. It shows what happens when Labor backs Aussie workers, and we'll keep turning up for Australians and workers right across the country. We'll work with unions, local workers, Aussie families and Aussie businesses to improve the lives of Australians, and this is where the lives of Australians start. A lot of kids earliest memories and their first friends are in these early education centres. We need to give the people looking after our most precious things the best opportunity to be the best versions of themselves. That means not worrying about the next bill. That means not having to work extra shifts on the weekend. That means being paid fairly for showing up and looking after our children. I commend this bill to the House.

Every morning across the Hunter you see parents juggling bags, wrangling toddlers and handing over their little ones to early educators with a mix of relief and trust. You see educators kneeling down to tie a shoelace, reading stories on a mat or comforting a child who's missing their mum or dad. It's a scene that plays out in centres across our region. From Singleton to Cessnock, all around the lakeside suburbs and all the way to the vineyards and the bush towns, educators in the Hunter are there day in and day out to help our kids learn, grow and get ready for school. And let's be honest. It's one of the most important jobs in the country. It's also one of the toughest.

Anyone who has tried to keep a room of three-year-olds entertained for more than five minutes knows exactly what we're talking about here, because it is a challenge. It takes patience. It takes skill and a heart the size of the Hunter River. But for too long early childhood educators have been asked to do this vital work with pay that simply does not match their responsibilities. For too long families have been squeezed by rising fees, and services have struggled to keep good staff. That's not fair on anyone—not the educators, not the families and certainly not those beautiful kids. That's why the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026 matters. That's why we're locking in a pay rise for early educators for another two years, which delivers on the government's commitment from June this year. It's about fairness and respect. It's about making sure every child in the Hunter and right across this beautiful country gets the best possible start with their education.

Let's get the facts on the table. On 8 August 2024, the government announced a 15 per cent wage increase for early childhood education and care workers. That made an immediate difference. Services that were delaying expansion plans, closing rooms or turning families away because they couldn't find staff started to see hope again. Since the worker retention payment was announced in 2024, we've seen about 20,000 more ECEC workers join the sector. That is an eight per cent increase. Job vacancies have dropped by nearly one-third. The proportion of services operating with a staffing waiver, which means they didn't have enough qualified staff, has fallen from 8.9 per cent to 4.3 per cent. More importantly, fees at the centres receiving the payment grew at about half the rate of those that didn't sign up.

Those aren't just numbers on a page; that's more rooms open, more kids getting a place and more parents able to get back to work while knowing their children are in safe hands. That's educators who can finally afford to stay in the job they love instead of burning out and moving on. Let's take Jess, who is an educator in Cessnock. She told me that before the pay rise she was seriously considering leaving the sector. She loved her job and loved the kids, but she just could not make ends meet. Now she's staying put and the kids in her room get to keep the educator that they trust. Or take the Singleton centre that was struggling to fill vacancies, running on skeleton staff and worried about having to close a room. Since the worker retention payment came in, they've been able to hire and keep the people they need. That's 20 more families who don't have to scramble for care.

The Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026 does a few things. Firstly, it amends the existing act to credit the special account with an extra $3.6 billion. That's not just a big number. That's money that'll keep wages higher for early educators for another two years. It extends the act's sunset date of 30 June 2028 to 31 December 2029, giving certainty to services, staff and families. Secondly, the special account is the engine room for the early childhood education and care worker retention payment grant. That's the grant that goes straight to the ECEC providers so they can pay higher wages to eligible workers. And this is not a handout; it's an investment in people who look after our kids.

Thirdly, and importantly, the funding extension is tied to a commitment from services to limit fee increases for families. That means the average family will save well over $1,500 over the next two years. In a time where every dollar counts, that's a big deal for families in the Hunter—families already feeling the pinch from rising rents, grocery prices and power bills. Fourthly, the bill strengthens quality and safety in early learning. From July 2027, services will be required to meet quality area 2 of the National Quality Standard, the part that deals with children's health and safety. If they don't, their funding can be cut or suspended. Around 95 per cent of services already meet this standard, but we want that number to be even higher. We want to see 100 per cent of those services meet that standard. Every child deserves to be safe, every parent deserves peace of mind and every educator deserves to work in a quality environment. Finally, the bill includes technical amendments to make sure the worker retention payment grant can be made to all approved providers, even if they're not a legal person like a partnership.

Let's bring it back to the Hunter now. We've got 67 centres participating in this scheme currently. More than 900 staff are receiving the payment. That's 900 people who can pay the mortgage, put food on the table and keep doing the work that they absolutely love. That's 67 centres that can keep their doors open, keep rooms running and keep families in our region working and thriving. I think of people like Mel in Morisset, who told me the pay rise meant she could finally afford to enrol her daughter in swimming lessons. This isn't just about wages; it's about stability and it's about relationships. When educators stay in the job, kids get to build trust, confidence and a sense of belonging. That's what sets them up for school life and later life. When families know their centre isn't going to close a room or lose staff, they can plan their lives, go to work and get on with the things that they do every single day.

At the heart of this bill is a simple principle: if you do important work, you deserve fair pay. Early educators are not babysitters. They are not just filling in time. They are shaping the next generation. They're teaching our kids to share, to listen, to ask questions, to be kind and to be inquisitive. They're spotting the signs when something isn't quite right, supporting kids with additional needs and working with families through some really tough times. For too long their pay did not reflect that. For too long we've relied on their goodwill and passion while asking them to accept less. This is certainly not the Australian way. We believe in a fair go. We believe in backing the people who do the hard yards. When you combine this funding with the government's support for minimum wage rises, it means $255 more per week for a typical full-time educator and $410 more per week for early childhood teachers, compared to December 2024. That is life-changing money for people who've been undervalued for too long. For families, the commitment to limit fee increases means savings. It means more money in the household budget. It means parents can get back to work knowing their kids are in good, safe hands and not have to choose between work and care.

For the first time ever, all CCS approved services will be eligible for funding, providing they meet grant requirements. That means more educators in more centres getting the recognition and support they deserve. I'm not a career politician. I'm a fitter by trade. I've worked in the mines. I've run engineering shops. I've raised a family in the Hunter. I know what it's like to have to worry about the bills, to juggle work and family, and to know that you want the best for kids. I also know what it's like to see good people undervalued, to see families doing it tough and to see services stretched to breaking points. That's why I'm proud to back this bill, because it delivers outcomes for real people in the Hunter. We're very practical people. We value hard work, fairness and looking after each other. We know that, when you invest in people, you invest in the whole community. When you back early educators, you back families, you back kids and you back the future for the Hunter region and Australia.

I've seen the difference this funding makes. I've seen educators who can finally breathe a little easier. I've seen families who can plan ahead, knowing the centre isn't going to close a room or lose its staff. I've seen kids get to keep their educator they trust, who they feel safe and supported by every single day. Let me tell you about Sarah who works in a centre in Lake Macquarie. She's been in early childhood education for 15 years. Before the pay rise, she was working extra shifts at a local cafe just to make ends meet. She told me she was exhausted. She didn't want to leave the kids she cared for. Since the worker retention payment came in, she's been able to drop the second job, spend more time with her own family and focus on the work that she loves most. The kids in her room are thriving, and so is she. Or take the story of the family from Singleton who struggled find to a place for their youngest when a room nearly closed due to staff shortages. Thanks to the funding, the centre was able to hire and keep the staff that they needed. That family didn't have to drive an hour each day to another day care in Cessnock. They got to stay in their communities with the educators they know and trust.

These aren't just stories. They're the reality of hundreds of families and educators in the Hunter. They're the reason this bill really matters. It's about making sure there are enough funds in the special account to keep paying higher wages through the worker retention payment grant. It's about certainty. It's about security. It's about making sure the gains we've made aren't lost. If we want to keep attracting and retaining the best people in early childhood education, we need to give them certainty. We need to show them that their work is valued, that their pay is secure and that their future is bright.

At the end of the day, this bill is about backing the people that back our kids. It's about fairness. It's about respect. It's about a fair go. It's about making sure every child in the Hunter and across Australia gets the best possible start in life. It's about making sure that we can keep our economy running, keep our jobs flowing and keep those workers that have had kids and want to get back out there in the workforce. We want them to keep coming back and back and back again without having to worry about where their kids are and who is looking after their kids. It's about making sure educators like Jess, Mel and Sarah can keep doing the work they love without having to worry about making ends meet. It's about making sure families can afford care, can get back to work and can build a better future. I commend this bill to the House.

The Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) (Extending Support and Strengthening Safety) Bill 2026 locks in the historic 15 per cent pay rise the Albanese government provided to early childhood educators two years ago. It also ensures that fees remain affordable for families already doing it tough and enshrines quality standards for the health and safety of children using early childhood education and care.

I want to begin by putting this bill in context, because it did not come out of nowhere. For years, successive governments talked about the importance of early childhood education, while the workforce underpinning the sector was allowed to go backwards in real terms. Educators were told again and again that their work mattered—that the first five years of a child's life shapes everything that follows; that quality early childhood learning narrows the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers; and that educators were, in fact, nation-builders. And yet, for all of this, their pay packet told a different story. This bill is our government's answer to that contradiction. It says that if we genuinely believe that this work matters then we will be willing to fund it properly, not just talk about it.

As a parent with young children, I have seen firsthand the great value of early childhood education and care. I've watched my own children attend their local centre and have seen the incredible work that their educators do each and every day. It is an incredible job, which takes a mixture of very important skills in teaching those youngest children. As I've said and as we know, children's brain development in those first five years is so important and sets them up for lifelong learning and everything that follows. But they're also very chaotic, unpredictable little humans, who need a lot of very special and dedicated care. It takes a really special person to be an early childhood educator and to be able to master that room of children while making each one feel that they have that personal attention. It is skilled, demanding, emotionally-taxing work, and anyone who has spent time at an early education centre knows it.

I've also seen just how hard it has been for educators to stay in those roles, when the pay was so low it was increasingly impossible to cover rent and bills. I've seen, including at my children's centre, that high turnover of staff, who really actually wanted to stay in the work they were doing, and were passionate about that work, but just couldn't make it add up for their families. I recall conversations with educators who'd been in the profession, sometimes, for decades, and had built real expertise and relationships with families, who were very sad to have to leave in search of other work or qualifications because they could not earn enough in that sector. It was an extraordinary indictment of how poorly we valued this incredibly important workforce, and it's exactly the kind of outcome that this bill is designed to prevent.

Up to 40 per cent of educators were leaving the profession each year. Think about what that churn actually meant in practice. It meant centres constantly recruiting and retraining. It meant children losing the continuity of care that matters so much in their early years. It meant directors spending their time juggling rosters instead of focusing on the quality of the programs they delivered. A workforce crisis of that scale does not stay contained to the sector. It flows through to every family that relies on that sector to be able to go to work each day.

Now that has changed. Thanks to the 15 per cent pay rise the Albanese government delivered two years ago, job vacancies are now down 31 per cent; job applications are up 30 per cent, in some places; and there are now 20,000 more childcare workers doing this life-changing work right across the country. These are not abstract statistics. Behind each one of those 20,000 additional educators is a centre that can now open the rooms it needs to open; a family that can now secure a place, instead of sitting on a waiting list; and an educator who has chosen to stay in, or return to, a profession that they are passionate about because it has finally started to pay a wage that they can live on.

When combined with the government's support for minimum wage rises, full-time educators are now getting $255 more per week in their pay packets, while pay for early childhood teachers has increased by $410 per week, compared to December 2024 when the Albanese Labor government first implemented this pay rise.

For a sector that is overwhelmingly staffed by women, this is not just a wages measure. This is a significant contribution to closing the gender pay gap in one of the most feminised professions in the country.

At least 1,200 educators at 71 centres in my electorate have received a pay rise, thanks to our government's concrete action to address the historic underpayment of workers in this sector. I have spoken with many of them directly, and the change in their circumstances has been real and immediate—the difference between constantly juggling bills and having a bit of breathing room, and feeling like their work is finally recognised in a meaningful way. Across Australia, over 215,000 early educators at more than 11,600 centres are now benefiting from our government's work to increase pay and conditions. This is a workforce reform of genuinely national scale, reaching almost every community, metropolitan and regional alike. The $3.6 billion investment the government made in 2024 to support a wage increase for early childhood educators was originally scheduled to run until 30 November this year. With this bill, a further $3.6 billion will now fund higher wages for eligible workers to 30 December 2029. This provides certainty for the sector, certainty for the workforce and certainty for families who have come to rely on the stability that this funding has brought.

Importantly, to access this funding, early education centres have to meet child health and safety standards under the National Quality Standard. This is a crucial point because this bill does not simply hand out funding with no strings attached. It ties public investment directly to the outcomes the public expects—safe, high-quality care for our children. All educators must be employed under a workplace instrument, an important protection for workers to ensure the government's investment is passed on in the form of higher wages rather than being absorbed elsewhere and never reaching the people that it is intended for.

Child safety training is now mandatory not just for early childhood educators but everyone up to the CEO and board of directors. This is a deliberate and important design choice. Child safety cannot be treated as something that only concerns frontline staff. It has to be the responsibility that runs through an entire organisation, from the educator in the room with the children through to the people making the decisions in the boardroom. We have allowed six months for that training to be completed, and more than 350,000 people have taken it up so far—a genuinely significant shift in the culture of an entire sector in a short period of time.

The government has also banned the use of personal mobile phones in early childhood centres, and there is a national CCTV trial underway in more than 300 services. These are practical, commonsense measures that respond directly to the community concern around child safety in care settings, and they sit alongside the broader cultural and training reforms this bill supports. This is being overseen by an advisory group that includes the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Centre for Child Protection, the National Office for Child Safety and other leading experts.

Having that level of specialist oversight matters. It means that these reforms are being designed and monitored by people with genuine expertise in child protection. In total, the Albanese Labor government is investing an additional $226 million in child safety reforms which, when combined with the more than $270 million committed by the states and territories, means that around half a billion dollars is being invested into strengthening the safety and quality of early childhood education and care. This is a substantial, coordinated national commitment—proof that, when governments at every level decide child safety is a genuine priority, they can move quickly and put real resources behind it.

The states and territories have also agreed to explore the development of an early education and care commission to further strengthen safety and quality across the system. This signals that today's reforms are not the endpoint but part of an ongoing process of strengthening oversight of a sector that looks after some of the youngest and most vulnerable members of our community. I, like all parents, have been absolutely horrified at what we've seen in the media of some of the examples where children have not been kept safe, and I'm proud that our government is acting in this comprehensive way to address this and ensure that, when our children go to early childhood education and care, we know that the best mechanisms have been put in place to ensure that they are safe and cared for and that the culture of the entire sector is focused around that safety.

It's not just workers who benefit from this legislation. To receive the funding, early education centres must limit their fee increases, providing direct cost-of-living relief for families at a time when household budgets are under real pressure. Over the first year of the program, fees at centres that have received the payment have increased by about half the amount of centres that didn't sign up. That is a clear, measurable benefit flowing directly to parents. Without this legislation, the Department of Education estimates that childcare fees would skyrocket by about 17 per cent. This is a great action that our government is taking for this very important sector.

Given that we are so close to time, the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour.