Early Childhood Australia National Conference - Brisbane
Let me begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we are meeting and pay my respects to elders past and present.
Let me also acknowledge:
• Trevor Brown ECA National President
• Sam Page CEO ECA
• Dr Anne Aly, Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth
• Di Farmer, Queensland Minister for Education and Minister for Youth Justice
• All the educators and teachers here today
Who was here two years ago at this conference when it was in Canberra?
If you were, you might remember I played a video.
It was a video of the moment my wife and I told our little boy Jack that he was going to be a big brother.
He was four years old and desperate for a little brother or sister.
He badgered us non-stop.
So I wanted to capture his reaction when we told him it was all about to happen.
In the video you can see Louise, my wife, give Jack the ultrasound image.
She asks him if he knows what it is.
He’s got no idea.
She tells him it’s a baby.
His eyes pop.
He asks me “is it a boy or a girl?”
I tell him it’s a boy.
You can see the joy wash over him.
And then he says this: “I’ve got to tell Kellie”.
I think you can guess who Kellie is.
And that’s the moment I got it.
What you know.
How deep and special that bond is with the children you care for.
With the children you educate.
But it’s not just that. It’s bigger than that.
A few things have changed in the last few years.
Jack’s no longer there. He’s now at school. But his little brother is there.
Kellie’s now the manager.
And there is someone else who is that special person in my littlest guy’s life. Her name is Kerrie.
And every day I pick him up I ask her how he is going.
And every day she asks me how my mum is.
It’s been a tough year in my family. My mum has been battling with cancer.
And the fact that Kerrie knows that, and that she asks me that, means something.
She doesn’t just care for my little guy, she cares about his family.
She is part of his family.
It’s a job like no other.
One of the most important in the world.
And one of the most underpaid.
That’s about to change.
Last month the Prime Minister announced a 15 percent pay rise for early educators across the country.
And last week we introduced legislation to make it a reality.
It means a 10 percent pay rise from this December. And another 5 percent next December.
What it means in reality is, for an educator, an extra $100 bucks a week from this December.
And an extra $155 bucks a week from next December.
Or to put it another way, an extra $7,800 a year.
For an early childhood teacher, it’s even more.
An extra $169 a week from this December.
And an extra $249 from next December.
That adds up to almost $13,000 a year.
On the day we made the announcement I dropped my little guy off and I asked Kerrie if she had heard the news.
She hadn’t. So I told her.
She looked at me for a minute, and then she said: “maybe I won’t quit now”.
Those words have stuck in my head.
How many Kerrie’s are there out there? Who are thinking of leaving. Or have already left.
Not because they want to but because they have had to. To pay the bills.
I hope this means there are lots of Kerrie’s who stay. And lots who come back. To the profession they love.
And more enrol in the TAFE or uni course too.
There are about 30,000 more early educators working today than there were two years ago, when we were elected.
And there are more in the pipeline.
But the truth is we need even more.
More educators means more children and more parents can benefit from what you do.
If we are going to build a bigger, better, fairer early education system, what the Prime Minister calls a universal system, where more families can access and afford the life changing things you do, the first thing we need is more of you.
That’s what the Productivity Commission said in its draft report earlier this year.
And today I am releasing its final report.
I’ll talk about that in a minute.
But before I do, there is one more thing I need to mention about this pay rise.
All up, it is worth about $3.6 billion.
And it’s not just a pay rise.
It also comes with a price cap.
A price cap for parents.
The way it will work is, to get this money to pay their employees more, centres won’t be able to raise their fees by more than 4.4 per cent in the 12 months from August this year.
That’s a price cap to keep prices down for parents.
We have done that deliberately.
Because we want this $3.6 billion that we are providing to do two things.
1. To pay you more.
And 2. To keep prices down for the more than 1 million mums and dads who put their children in your trust.
In the last 12 months we’ve cut the cost of early education and care for a lot of families.
The changes we have made mean that a family on a combined income of $120,000 today that has one child in care, three days a week, is now paying about $2,000 less than they otherwise would.
This cap will help to keep costs down.
Now I want to talk to you about what comes next.
As I said a moment ago, today we are releasing the Productivity Commission’s Final Report.
It’s the culmination of 16 months’ worth of work.
Led by Professor Emerita Deborah Brennan AM, and Martin Stokie and Lisa Gropp at the Productivity Commission.
And it’s massive.
Almost 1,000 pages long.
56 recommendations.
Three volumes.
I am not going to read it to you, and we are not going to respond to it today, but I do want to give you a sense of what it says.
The most important point it makes is this - that it’s the most disadvantaged children in this country who are the most likely to benefit from what you do, and the most likely to miss out.
In other words, the children who need you the most are the ones who aren’t there.
Children from really poor families.
Children in the more remote parts of Australia.
And children with complex needs.
It says a universal early education system is one where every child can access at least 30 hours or three days a week of high-quality education and care.
It says that should involve making it free for families on low incomes and cheaper for others.
It says we should abolish the Activity Test.
It says State Governments should ensure Outside School Hours Care is available in every public school where there is sustainable demand.
It also recommends a Development Fund and an Inclusion Fund to improve access.
It says we need a new national Agreement and a National Commission.
And it says we should do all of this over the next ten or so years.
It says that reform should be phased so those who need it the most aren’t crowded out.
I am not announcing today what we are going to do.
I am releasing it to seek your advice on it. What you think we should do and what we shouldn’t.
And how we should do it.
We are closely looking at this report, along with the ACCC’s recent report and I want your feedback.
The truth is big reform takes time.
That’s particularly true in education.
And I want to reform our entire education system.
To make it better and fairer.
I want you to think for a minute about the year 2050.
I will hopefully still be kicking, but I will be long since retired.
Some of you might be retired too. Others might be still working.
The children you are caring for and educating today will definitely be working. They will be in the prime of their life.
By then we think about four out of five jobs will require a TAFE qualification or a uni degree.
If that’s going to happen, we need more people from poor families and the regions to get a crack at TAFE and university.
I am working on big reforms now to make that possible.
But it won’t work unless more children from poor families and the regions also finish school.
And at the moment, the opposite is happening. That number is going backwards.
We have got to turn this around.
It won’t surprise you that the students who aren’t going to TAFE or uni, who aren’t finishing school, are the same students who are falling behind in their very first years at primary school.
And that’s what the reforms I am driving in our schools is all about. Helping them. Helping more children who fall behind to catch up, keep up and finish school.
But what about the children who don’t just fall behind, what about the children who start behind.
The children this report says you never see.
What if you did?
The US President says that a child who goes to preschool is 50 percent more likely to go to college or university.
Their life is changed forever.
They get a ticket to the show.
That’s why this pay rise and this report are important.
Because it’s not just about you.
It’s about what you do for us.
For all of us.
For the children you care for and teach today.
For the ones you don’t but could.
For the lives you shape and help make possible.
And for the country you can help us become.
That’s why I say this is one of the most important jobs in the world.
And why I thank Kellie and Kerrie every time I see them.