Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Next month, like thousands of Australian families, I will take my young son to child care for the first time. I do so with a mix of excitement, for the wonderful child development opportunities that await my young son, and of deep sadness, over the horrific child abuse allegations that we have seen uncovered across Australia. I know in my heart that these perpetrators of abuse are not representative of the thousands of incredible educators who commit their lives to loving and guiding our littlest people through their most important years.

I also want to acknowledge that our educators are hurting too. My heart goes out to the early education sector, which is filled with good, decent and loving educators. They are upset and they are angry, just like us. But tonight we take action. On behalf of more than one million Australians with children in child care, I say thank you to the Prime Minister for his swift action. I also say thank you to the Minister for Education, Jason Clare, and the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Senator Jess Walsh. Ministers Clare and Walsh have stepped up to this moment without hesitation. They have confronted this moment without excuses and sought to fast-track these amendments as urgently as Australian parents would expect them to.

This bill, the Early Childhood Education and Care (Strengthening Regulation of Early Education) Bill 2025, provides levers to drive real and meaningful change. Seventy per cent of the running costs for early education centres are provided for from the Commonwealth childcare subsidy. This bill gives the Commonwealth the power to immediately cut off the childcare subsidy for centres falling below the standard, or even for one single safety breach. The states and territories remain the regulators for centres, responsible for regulating safety and quality across centres in their jurisdiction.

This bill also expands powers for on-the-spot inspections without warrants or police accompaniment to investigate fraud, misconduct and noncompliance. A national register for childcare workers will be established to track the employment history of workers, to prevent them moving between centres undetected, looking for red flags and taking swift action.

I wish to acknowledge that there is further policy work underway, including mandatory child safety training for all workers to identify potential grooming behaviour and the abuse of children. I also acknowledge that there are trials underway on the use of CCTV, to carefully consider the use of this technology to deter offenders but, most importantly, to protect privacy.

I support this bill, and I call on all states and territories to continue to work with the Commonwealth to take strong action to enhance safety and quality in our early education centres.