Lisa Darmanin (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Senator Walsh. Minister, early learning gives children a great start in life and helps families thrive, but quality early learning depends on the dedicated educators who support children every day. The Albanese Labor government has delivered and now locked in a 15 per cent pay rise for this workforce, including tens of thousands of educators in my home state of Victoria. Minister, what difference is this pay rise already making for educators and for families?

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

Thank you very much, Senator Darmanin, for the question and for your years of dedication to working Australians. Like everyone on this side of the chamber, Senator Darmanin backs workers, and that includes our nation's dedicated early childhood educators. Our 15 per cent pay rise has been a game changer. With minimum wages also going up this week on 1 July, in total a typical full-time educator will be $255 a week better off. Just like we've backed higher minimum wages for all workers, we've backed a pay boost for our nation's early childhood educators.

Under the previous coalition government, educators were leaving the sector in droves. Educators told the coalition again and again that low pay was driving a workforce crisis, and they did nothing about it. So we did the hard work of delivering real change through our $3.6 billion pay rise. Educators themselves are telling us just what a difference this has made. When the Prime Minister announced the pay rise a couple of weeks ago, he met Elizabeth. She's worked in early childhood education for 21 years, and she says our 15 per cent pay rise is helping more educators just like her stay in the jobs they love. That's good for them, and it's also great for kids, because this pay rise means a stable workforce and more certainty for children and families. There are more than 200,000 workers just like Elizabeth covered by this pay rise—200,000 educators, overwhelmingly women. This is real change for those workers, who were undervalued for way too long by those opposite. Labor believes the people who educate and care for Australia's youngest children deserve to be paid properly. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Darmanin, first supplementary?

Lisa Darmanin (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Early learning is built on relationships between children, families and educators. The early years matter. Why is a strong and stable educator workforce so important to quality early learning, and how does our approach support families too?

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

Families want a quality early learning system that they can rely on, but you can't have a quality early learning system without a quality workforce. The pay rise means educators can afford to stay in the jobs they love. Since it was announced, job vacancies are down by almost a third in this sector. Staffing waivers are down by 40 per cent. And here's what that really means for a million Australian families: it means a greater chance that your child will have the same educator at the end of the year as they did at the start. It means your child can have a favourite educator that they know and love—the same face there every day, the same educator who knows what your child needs. It means children feel safe, and, when they feel safe, they feel ready to learn. That's what happens when you respect early educators, when you pay them fairly and when you back workers, because when you back workers you also back families, and that's exactly what we're doing. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Darmanin, second supplementary?

Lisa Darmanin (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese government has backed workers with higher wages, stronger rights at work and a historic pay rise for early childhood educators, but some still question the value of trained educators and want to wind back progress. What's at stake if Australia does not back a trained, qualified and respected early learning workforce?

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

Without this dedicated workforce, quality would suffer in early education. It's unavoidable, and it hurts children, and it hurts the parents who rely on this system while they're at work. So you would think that everyone would back these workers in, but the coalition of chaos over there seems confused. You have One Nation asking, 'Didn't they just get a pay rise?' and scratching their heads over why educators even need to be qualified at all. Meanwhile, it seems that when Mr Taylor looks in the mirror he sees Senator Hanson staring back at him. If he's adopting One Nation's politics, will he also adopt One Nation's policy of questioning whether families even need early childhood education at all? On this side of the chamber we back these workers, we back families and we back the early education and care system that one million Australian families need.