Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

We know that early childhood educators are absolutely the best asset that we have in keeping children safe and delivering quality early childhood education. That is why we are the government who have delivered a historic 15 per cent pay rise to this incredibly hardworking workforce. These are the people, 99.9 per cent of them, who are going in every day to do the best job they can to keep Australian children safe, to care for them and to educate them. Under those opposite, they were undervalued for 10 long years. They were underpaid for 10 long years. We are the government who have provided a 15 per cent pay rise, and it is paying dividends not just for the educators themselves, who can now afford to stay in jobs that they love, but also for the children in their care, by providing them with a stable, long-term, quality workforce. It is our government who has delivered that.