This week in Parliament I was pleased to bring to the attention of Parliament the important work of Early Childhood Educators, including the local award winners of excellence awards,through a Private Member's Statement. This is what I said:

If we want to give our children the best chance to grow, and thrive, and participate fully in our society, and have great jobs and interesting hobbies, and make the best lives for themselves, then we have to start to help them as early as possible.

Early childhood educators play a key role in our society in laying the strong foundations for the next generation of innovative thinkers, confident decision-makers, and creative collaborators: a generation of Australians that is fully alive to its potential.

A few weeks ago I was privileged to be present at the 2019 Australian Childcare Alliance New South Wales Excellence in Early Childhood Education Awards.

The awards highlighted the pivotal role of the early childhood learning sector in our society, and the enthusiasm, passion and commitment of early childhood educators.

Amongst the thirty-five services that were recognised with an award there were three outstanding services at which children from families in my electorate participate, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to recognise their standard of excellence here today.

Adamstown Community Early Learning and Preschool was awarded the Team Excellence Award for a Regional Small Service.

Fletcher Early Learning and Montessori Centre was awarded the Service Excellence Award for a Large Private Regional Service.

Developing Dreams Early Learning Centre in Chain Valley Bay was awarded the Service Excellence Award for a Small Private Regional Service.

The recognition of the excellence of these centres, serving families in my local community is extremely welcome; and it indicates that there are hundreds of other centres also offering exceptional services in other local communities across our State.

I know from meeting with hundreds of early childhood educators that it is a great mistake for anyone to think that Early Childhood services are here to simply look after children until they are old enough to go to Primary School where the real learning takes place.

Future citizens, future leaders, future members of our local communities are being prepared every day in the early childhood sector.

The skills that we all need, to be able to care for others, and live responsibly, begin to be taught in these services, and in family homes from the earliest ages.

I know from meeting with educators who study the outcomes of early childhood learning, that when children are able to be part of a quality early childhood learning service, they learn critical social and emotional skills that become the foundation for everything else that they will learn in the future.

The brains of the children in our early learning services are like little sponges, soaking in whatever is presented to them. Every new word, emotion and experience is significant and shapes the person that they are becoming.

To put it simply, the earlier in life that we start to make friends, the better we will be at keeping friends in the future. And the earlier that we start to feel confident about ourselves and our abilities to try new things, the more confident we will feel about living life to the full in the future.

So when our early learning educators, in partnership with parents and grand parents and carers at home, inspire even the youngest of children to embark on a life long passion for learning, that is not just good news for those children and their families, it is good news for all of us.

To all of the Early Childhood Excellence Awards nominees and award winners that were recognised this year, I express the thanks and congratulations of the Members on this side of the House.

And I do that proudly, because we are committed unequivocally to championing the early childhood sector; we are committed to recognising the important work of early childhood educators, by advocating for appropriate levels of training, ongoing professional development, and remuneration; and most of all because we know that early childhood learning is not some kind of child-minding service, but is rather the foundational platform for life-long learning, so critical to helping all Australians to achieve their full potential.

The Early Childhood Excellence Awards shine a welcome spotlight on the highly skilled contribution of early childhood educators to our society. And I recognise and celebrate that contribution today.