Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the government's answers to opposition questions. The first issue I want to address—and I want to thank Senator Kovacic for her contribution just then; I think it is above politics—is the conversation around early childhood centres and education. I think Minister Walsh was very clear in trying to articulate, during the questions from Senator Duniam in question time, the process in which the government will undertake to seek that urgency to ensure that the reforms are established.

We share your concern and, as Minister Walsh said, also welcome your bipartisanship in working with the government to ensure that this important and urgent work is done. We will consider the different facets of that, and the minister already committed to a scheduled urgent meeting in her response to today's question about this.

As a working mother of two daughters who has used day care and child care for my own children, of course it was upsetting to hear the reports. Led by Jason Clare, our education minister from the other place, Labor are looking at important reforms that stretch across an important workforce, one that is particularly represented by low-paid workers and by women, and are working through what a national child safety package looks like in relation to urgent reform for our children. And I'm glad that we share, across the aisle, the concern in relation to how we will get this job done.

I can assure you that the Albanese Labor government believe that every child in Australia deserves quality, safe and affordable early education. That is at the heart of the work that our education minister and our assistant minister will undertake in order to ensure that that happens. We see the value in ensuring that women—and it is women who shoulder the burden in this—are supported in getting back into the workforce. Of course, we want to make sure that, when you drop your children off to an early childhood care provider, there are guardrails in place, essentially using the Commonwealth levers that exist to make sure there are regulations in place for quality and safety when they are the domain of states and territories. That's some important work that the Albanese Labor government will do through its childcare subsidy funding. I look forward to having conversations with the opposition and continuing that bipartisan support for that work.

I also quickly want to touch on the question asked of Minister Ayres by Senator McDonald, in relation to the closure of smelters and what the Albanese Labor government are doing in relation to our strategic and considered approach to our minerals- and metals-processing sectors—making sure that we are strengthening our economic resilience and our national security. We will build a future where Australia adds value to our resources, strengthens our supply chains and secures well-paid, stable blue-collar jobs. Each smelter obviously faces distinct changes, and I think that Minister Ayres was very clear in his response today about the way in which the Albanese Labor government will work through that. Those challenges are quite significant. Those challenges are about working with state and territory governments, industry leaders, unions and affected communities nationwide. It is our priority, in order to secure the sectors' long-term viability in the national interest, to put all of those pieces together, and it is the work that Minister Ayres, within his portfolio, will do. (Time expired)