Speech to NSW Parliament on the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022.
Ms JODIE HARRISON (Charlestown): I contribute to debate on the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Bill 2022. This is a topic of particular interest to me, as the shadow Minister for Women and the former shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education. I was also an organiser for what is now the United Workers Union, which covers large numbers of workers in the early childhood sector.
I worked in that space with those workers. At the outset, I acknowledge that for many years early childhood educators, early childhood learning and care providers, and parents have been pushing for reforms in this sector. Early childhood learning and care is often prohibitively expensive for families and there are limited places, meaning some children miss out totally, and early childhood educators are way too undervalued for the important work that they do.
I note that early childhood educators recently took industrial action across New South Wales to raise public awareness of their poor recognition. That action is basically unheard of in that sector, particularly within this generation of educators, who care so much for our children.
Early childhood education is a game-changer for young children. We know that it is one of the best ways to help children develop the social, emotional and cognitive skills that they need for future learning. Every child in this State deserves the best start in life and their families should not be priced out of that opportunity.
Early childhood education is also essential to ensure that parents are able to fully participate in the workforce if they want to. With the skills shortages we are experiencing across large parts of the economy at the moment, that is incredibly important. It is also important for gender equity.
The bill arises following the Government's Women's Economic Opportunities review. An expert panel was established to identify reform options to support women to enter, re-enter, stay and succeed in the workforce and to improve women's economic security throughout their lifetimes. I thank the members of that expert panel for their input. In its recommendation to the Government, the panel stated:
Our most significant recommendation to create generational change across the NSW economy is a long-term commitment to a guarantee of free or low-cost high quality, accessible childcare, and preschool across the state.
That was the most significant recommendation, in the words of the expert panel. The bill does not actually do that. There is certainly more work to be done. It is a shame that the opportunity has not been taken by the Government to take up that recommendation fully.
The bill establishes the New South Wales childcare and economic opportunity fund as a vehicle to address the lack of accessible and affordable early childhood education and care in this State. I recognise that that is the bill's goal, but I question how effective it will be in addressing the issue without significant amendments.
The bill aims to establish the fund in the Special Deposits Account, which means it will be legally separate from the State's Consolidated Fund. The bill also establishes a standing appropriation for 10 years and sets some funds that can be paid out during those 10 years.
It creates a significant and ongoing budget commitment, which is meant to address a serious issue in our community. Fundamentally, the bill is aimed at giving incentives to providers to extend childcare services at lower prices. In turn, that is meant to increase participation in the workforce, particularly for women.
I cannot speak on the bill without recognising the significant recent reforms introduced to the Federal Parliament just last month by the newly elected Labor Government to increase the affordability of early childhood learning and to remove the financial disincentive in childcare fees for a primary caring parent to work full time. Since she raised it in her contribution, the member for North Shore will be pleased to know that the Federal Government has committed to that.
I recognise the work of the Hon. Amanda Rishworth, who was shadow Minister, in developing and taking the policy to the election, and the Minister for Education, the Hon. Jason Clare, for seeing it through. This Federal policy will see an investment of $4.5 billion over four years from next year, benefiting 1.26 million families and generating the equivalent of 37,000 extra full-time workers across the country, which is a significant commitment.
In that context, the goal of the bill is admirable, but it has flaws. In particular, I note concerns about the governance of the fund and a failure to adequately address the acute skills shortage and workforce issues within the childcare sector. There is a lot of money in this bill, but there are next to no real details about how the money will be allocated, what it will be spent on or even what it will accomplish.
The United Workers Union has raised serious concerns about whether the bill will even achieve its primary goal of making early childhood education and care more affordable. The money could end up just propping up for-profit companies, pouring public funds into private businesses, businesses which may well pocket the extra funding without boosting staff pay and conditions to fix the workforce crisis or appreciably lowering prices.
These concerns have been echoed by Unions NSW, which has also raised the lack of employee representation on the board. There should be an increased focus on ensuring there is appropriate industry representation on the board, both by employers and employees.
I come now to an issue that I have a particular interest in—namely, the failure of this bill to address what is an enormous problem confronting the early childhood education and care sector: the skills shortage and workforce issues that have plagued the sector for some time. As I mentioned earlier, I have spent a lot of time with early childhood education and care workers over the course of my career. First, as an organiser for what is now the United Workers Union and then as shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education.
I have heard over and over again from early childhood educators that they love their job. They love the kids. They love the work. They love the reward of being part of a child's development. But I have heard over and over again that the challenges of the job too often outweigh the joys. I have heard that highly qualified educators, who put their all into the job, say with great regret that they just cannot keep it up. The pay is too little. The pressures are too great. They cannot get a mortgage. They cannot get a home to live in that they can afford. They cannot live in the town that they work in because there is just not adequate recognition.
As well as the needed amendment to ensure good, open and transparent governance of the fund, governance which the public can see, this bill should absolutely be amended to address the serious matter of a skills shortage. There needs to be a workforce plan developed and updated regularly, looking at skills, wages, standards and quality of training for early childhood educators and education and care sector workers. The quality standards in the early childhood sector should be considered by the board as a matter of course to ensure that good money is not being spent on providers that are not delivering outcomes to the standards that staff, families and the broader community are entitled to expect. This bill has good intentions, but it is flawed. It should be amended to deal with the rightful concerns that have been raised.
I say it has good intention, because all across the State there are child care deserts—locations where there is barely one place available for every three children who need it and their families who want to participate more fully in the workforce. Across this State there are parents forced to make difficult decisions about whether they can afford to work an extra day if it means having to fork out more for child care. All across this State the early childhood education and care sector is in desperate need of reform.
I urge the Government to work with the Opposition and consider our amendments in the spirit in which they are provided so that we can get this reform right.
