Press Conference - Kirinari Early Childhood Centre

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR WOMEN: Well, thanks for coming, everyone. It's great to be here at Kirinari Child Care Centre in Canberra for this important announcement that was made yesterday. I mean, we have known for some time that early childhood educators have been undervalued and underpaid. And we wanted to change that. So, we've made a provision in our budget. That money will provide a retention payment while the Fair Work Commission works out their assessment of the award system, but essentially it means a 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators' important work and, you know - they no longer need just our thanks, they actually need to be paid properly. We know it'll make a difference to the retention, to workforce. Over 90 per cent of early childhood educators are women. And again, no surprise, women often are found in lower paid jobs. This will help fix that. So this is a big part of our work to address gender equality, to make sure women get paid properly for the work that they do, but that across the whole sector, the early childhood educators are respected not only for the work they do, but with the pay they also receive. So, this will make a big difference, over $100 a week when the first pay rise comes in. And again, then subsequent pay rises next year. And then the Fair Work Commission will do their job as well. So, really important announcement and I think it shows the value that the Albanese government places on making sure we're dealing with people's wages and making sure that they keep pace with the cost-of-living but also that we adjust them where we can. So, I'll let Alicia and then Anna, and then we'll have an early childhood educator to speak as well.

ALICIA PAYNE MP, MEMBER FOR CANBERRA: Good morning. It's so wonderful to be here this morning with Leanne and the team at Kirinari and with Senator Katy Gallagher to talk about this fantastic announcement our Government has made about supporting a pay increase for early childhood educators. As a parent I have seen firsthand the incredible work that early childhood educators do. It is a really special person that becomes an early childhood educator. It is skilful, dedicated work. It requires patience. It requires understanding the smallest little minds and making such a contribution to shaping our children at this critical time in their development, because we know that the early years set children up for the rest of their lives. So, the contribution that early childhood educators promote to that is just critically important. But for too long, they haven't had the recognition that they deserve. And that means more than thanks. It means paying them properly and I'm so proud that our Government is doing this today. We know - I want to acknowledge as well that early childhood educators and unions and the community have campaigned for this over many years. This is something that has been a long time coming, it is well deserved and overdue, and I'm just very proud that our Government is getting behind our early childhood educators. And of course, this pay rise comes with a commitment from centres that they won't be able to raise their prices beyond a cap, which - because we know that families are struggling with cost-of-living at the moment and we don't want anyone to not be able to access the great benefits of early childhood education and care. And so, I just want to again say, you know, a real shout out - and we are in Early Learning Matters Week - to all of the early childhood educators around Canberra and thank them for what they do for the littlest Canberrans and families every day. Thank you.

ANNA WHITTY, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR MURRUMBIDGEE: Hey everyone, my name is Anna Whitty and I'm an early childhood teacher and an ACT Labor candidate for Murrumbidgee. I'm just so excited about yesterday's announcement. We've waited a long time to have the work of early childhood educators recognised as early childhood education and to be paid fairly. I just really want to acknowledge and thank the Albanese Labor Government for actually making this happen. We've known for a long time, and the research is irrefutable, that early childhood education changes lives. We know that 90 - over 95 per cent of a human's brain develops before the age of five. And we know that access to early childhood education sets children up for lifelong learning and success. That's especially true for children who've experienced disadvantage and vulnerability. And I know that yesterday's announcement will change lives. It makes such a difference for a workforce who've worked tirelessly over the decades to ensure that children have the best start possible in life. Thank you.

GARV LUTHRA, EDUCATOR: I'm an early childhood at Kirinari. I just want to congratulate everyone, the thousands of educators who have come together and all the efforts and all the sweat and tears that have been put into this has finally paid off. It's a massive, massive win for the sector and it's great to finally have the recognition that this sector has deserved for years now, long time coming. It's going to massively impact the conditions, the working conditions, and it's going to give a lot of relief to the educators, especially with the inflation and the rates and it's just going to be massive.

JOURNALIST: So Katy, as you mentioned, child care workers have been calling for an increase for some while, why didn't the federal government do this sooner?

GALLAGHER: Well, we've had to make room in the Budget. Obviously, this comes with a pretty significant fiscal cost, but we see it as an investment as well. So, we've needed to get the Budget back in shape, needed to fund a whole range of programs. And we've been working with the unions across the sector to see what we could do. It's a new area for the government to get involved in actually, you know - in ways other than the Child Care Subsidy. So, coming directly to centres. But we've done our report, we've done the homework. It was clear that early childhood educators were underpaid for the work that we, and parents of those children, expect them to do and we needed to address that. The market wasn't going to do it and so, the Government needed to intervene. But this is, you know - comes at a cost of about $3.6 billion. And I guess that shows you kind of the magnitude of the room that we had to find in the Budget for this. But I don't say that as a cost. It's an investment in our children's lives. And it's actually recognition, appropriate recognition, for the high regard that we hold early childhood educators.

JOURNALIST: Where did - or, how was the 4.4 per cent fee increase calculated and what do you expect that the average family bill for child care?

GALLAGHER: Yeah, so we've been looking, obviously, at how to make child care more affordable. We've had our Cheaper Child Care initiatives, which has actually lowered the prices parents pay by about 11 per cent. But there's more to be done. There's a recognition, I think - and when we were looking at how to make this payment, we were very clear that we did not want flow-on costs to go to parents, which is why the Government's intervened with this money. But then you have a look at what is a reasonable additional cost, there are costs other than labour that providers will need to meet. So, we consider that with the cost of inflation and other consumables that centres would use. We think that's a reasonable cost, but that's the cap. We're coming to providers and saying, we will pay your biggest cost, which is labour, and therefore we don't expect to see fees grow at any rate that, you know, is above what we would expect to be normal growth. And that's where we've landed on that figure. It's been, you know, carefully looked at. This has been worked across government for some months now, to make sure that we get the balance right. What we didn't want was wages going up and fees going up at the same time, because we get that you know, cost of living for parents - and child care is second biggest cost in families that have young children after their mortgage.

JOURNALIST: And will there be some kind of audit process to ensure the services are meeting those conditions?

GALLAGHER: Absolutely. We will watch this very carefully. This is taxpayers' money, so we want to make sure that it does actually get into the pockets of early childhood educators. I believe all of the providers will be wanting that too, because, you know, they need to retain staff and keep quality staff in their centres. But yeah - and that's why the payment comes in from December. It gives the department that time to get in place the systems that we need to make sure we're monitoring where that money goes.

JOURNALIST: And so can child care centre services raise fees as much as they like after the one year?

GALLAGHER: I mean, obviously we're doing a lot of work. This is pretty carefully watched through the ACCC and others, about the cost of child care. So, I mean theoretically, if they did that I imagine a lot of children and a lot of parents would go to other centres that weren't doing that. So, there is a level of you know, I guess management of fees in the sector. But we're also doing a huge amount of work about how do we make early childhood education universal, how do we genuinely make it essentially part of the schooling system. You know, how do we look at it for children under five years of age. And so there's more work to be done. This is a retention payment for the next couple of years, but also the Fair Work Commission is doing their analysis into the awards system, of which this award that covers early childhood educators is one of them. So, we expect that will be part of the process beyond the two years as well.

JOURNALIST: And the former RBA Deputy Governor, Luci Ellis, has said that the Reserve Bank wouldn't look favourably on child care pay raises. Do you think you should have delayed the introduction for another six months, given the inflation is lingering?

GALLAGHER: Well, this payment has been factored into our Budget, which was released in May. It was a decision taken but not announced, so, that - it factors into the information the RBA has about our Budget. They've already made their decisions around interest rates and keeping interest rates on hold based on the information that they've received from May. So, I don't expect it to do that, to have any impact in that regard. But also, when you look at the things that are causing inflation, wages for the lowest paid is not one of the drivers of inflation in this economy. There's a range of other reasons. The majority, obviously, is global uncertainty, some of those oil prices and some of the stickiness that we've seen in other economies. It's not related to how underpaid the early childhood educators are.

JOURNALIST: And unions have been calling for, I think, 25 per cent pay rise. So, is 15 per cent enough to prepare for a universal child care system?

GALLAGHER: Well, look, it's a big step forward. I think always in these things, you know, unions will want more, government looks at what it can do, and we usually land somewhere in the middle. And, you know, I think it's been welcomed by the union. And I should acknowledge they've been campaigning - the Big Steps Campaign has been around, you know, for years, trying to argue for better conditions, better pay, quality standards in early childhood education. And you know, this is a big and a significant win for the workers in the sector. Without their lobbying and advocacy, you know, governments don't - you know, wouldn't respond. And I think we've been engaged in this since day one, looking at how we can improve conditions for early childhood educators, and this is a massive step forward.

JOURNALIST: Property and business experts have been calling for the Public Service to perhaps look at encouraging more workers to get back into the office to address office vacancy rates and perhaps get a little bit more activity happening here in the Canberra CBD. What's your thoughts on that, Senator?

GALLAGHER: Oh, I think the APS is like every employer. You know, we've had to manage flexible work arrangements, particularly since COVID when it really accelerated and a lot of people began working from home and managed working from home and enjoyed, you know, working part of the week from home. So, the APS is like every other employer in that regard. We have to offer flexibility if we're to retain key people, but it has to be a balance. You know, they have to continue to deliver the work, so. You know, we're keeping an eye on this - how, I guess the behaviour response to working from home arrangements. There is the ability to work from home if you've negotiated with your manager and there's operational flexibility for that. Obviously in a lot of public sector rolls there isn't that flexibility, and you need to be in the office. But it's something I think all employers will be keeping their eye on. You know, how do you manage what your employees need with what your operational needs are?

JOURNALIST: A lot of businesses in our CBD are saying that they're not seeing the foot traffic that they once did prior to COVID. Is there a case to be made for still encouraging workers to get into the office more within the public service, but still maintaining some of their work from home privileges? Is there a case to be made for more office time?

GALLAGHER: Oh, for sure. And I think when you look at the data, you know, about I think 39 per cent of our APS workforce have no working from home arrangements. I.e., they're in the office all the time. So, that's a pretty sizable group. And then when you look at the next chunk, you know, the majority are a day or two days working from home and the rest in the office. So, it's very rare to have someone, employees who are just not in the office. That's not the way it's working in the APS. But I accept that for businesses that have structured their businesses around big employment bases, like, you know, large departments in Canberra, that even if you see a small reduction, that affects your business. So you know, we've got sympathy with that. We want people in the office, but we need to also be making sure that we are an attractive place to work and flexibility - and for women particularly, they will rate flexibility above pay when we do all of our surveys. It's "give me flexibility at work and I will forego pay." Now, we don't want to do both of those things. We want them paid properly, but we actually have to make sure we're offering some flexibility as well.

JOURNALIST: Just very quickly, Katy, the Coalition is looking to put a Senate inquiry motion to parliament next week calling for the Senate inquiry into the CFMEU. Senator Cash yesterday raised concerns that the ACT along with WA was left out of the Fair Work Commission's application to place all the branches into administration. What are your takes on that? Was there perhaps a case to be made for including the ACT in the Fair Work Commission's application to put the others into administration?

GALLAGHER: So, I understand the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations will be making some comments today, this morning, around some of the matters relating to the CFMEU. So, it's probably better I leave it to him to make those announcements. But I would say to the Coalition, you know, if we - if there's anything to have a vote on in the Parliament next week, it's to make sure that we get the legislation in place that will do that. So, you know, a Senate inquiry might be something that they want to look at down the track. But the real pressure is to make sure we're doing what we need to do now, to make sure we've got the laws in place to intervene in this matter. On the point about the ACT - and this is really a matter I think for Fair Work to consider - but they have focused on the branches where there have been significant, serious complaints about the operations of those branches. That hasn't been the case in the ACT. But that's not to say that there wouldn't be further focus on that if those issues arose. But, you know, I think it serves the Coalition's political purposes to try and dump everything in one way and try and have a Senate inquiry so that they can continue to politic. But the real thing is to clean up this union and to make sure that building sites and being managed appropriately.

JOURNALIST: Can I just ask a Robodebt question. Have you seen the Public Service Commission's Code of Conduct findings?

GALLAGHER: No, I haven't. But I have had a number of meetings with the Public Service Commissioner. So you know, those matters are you know being finalised, so I would expect it to be not too much longer. But that's a matter for the Public Service Commissioner. He has kept me briefed throughout the process.

JOURNALIST: And on the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission, is the legislation coming soon for that?

GALLAGHER: Yes, it is. So, I've just got a bit more work to do today. In fact, I've been speaking to members of the parliamentary task force this morning. But we are still tracking towards having that operational in October. And I'm hopeful, although, you know - I'm not, I wouldn't say 100 per cent - I'm hopeful that I'll have the legislation in the parliament very soon.

JOURNALIST: Just one more. Do you think the appointment of Secretaries is too politicised?

GALLAGHER: Well, since we've come to government, the appointment of secretaries, I think - aside from the PM&C Secretary which is, you know, is really the prerogative of the Prime Minister and always has been - those Secretaries have been appointed through merit selection processes. So, we have been putting in place appropriate ways to interview and recruit the best Secretaries that we can. We've got a very strong group of Secretaries in the APS at the moment. They work very hard, as they should. But no, I don't think as a general rule that it is politicised, and I think there needs to be a process around their appointments.

JOURNALIST: Alicia, thank you. ACOSS will be launching their campaign around homelessness policy here in the ACT. They've raised concerns that homelessness still - we're still seeing high rates of homelessness in the ACT. What's your take on I guess the rate of homelessness that we do have here in Canberra and what is the federal government been doing to try and address that here in Canberra? Has there been enough action from federal Labor here in the ACT on the issue?

PAYNE: Well, clearly homelessness is a problem here in Canberra, but around the country. And there's - you know, in a country like Australia we shouldn't see the rates of homelessness that we do. But our Federal Government is clearly you know, really focused on housing and homelessness. And since coming to government has put in place a range of policies. This was a key part of our platform at the last election. And that's - the Federal Government working with State and Territory governments around that to build more housing, but also supporting the services that provide support to people who are facing homelessness or are homeless. And I know that we've been working on that. That has been a key focus in our Government.

JOURNALIST: Do you think that the Federal Government has done enough for Canberra in particular when it comes to homelessness, can you perhaps point to any examples here in this past term?

PAYNE: Yes. So just recently, I went with the former Housing Minister, Julie Collins, and our ACT Housing Minister, Yvette Berry, to visit a new public housing property that was being built with the support of the Federal Government. So we - through our Homes for Australia Plan have been you know, providing money to states and to get more housing built, to get people into that housing, to bring down those waiting lists for public housing. And I think that this is something that we talk about all the time. It's been a really key part of what we're doing. This week is Homelessness Week and I visited the early morning centre this week and the team there. That's a service that provides, you know, started off providing breakfast for people but now is providing a range of services connecting people with doctors, with centres, with services, with Centrelink, all of these sorts of things. And I just want to take the opportunity to talk about you know, all the people in our community that are supporting people facing homelessness and the important work that they do that is really important and our Government is recognising it.

JOURNALIST: Very quickly Alicia, what more do you think needs to happen in this space to not only improve public housing accessibility, but perhaps also to bolster the wrap-around support services that we have around homelessness here in Canberra?

PAYNE: I think, you know, there's always more we can do to support people before they become homeless. You know - and again, these areas our Government is focusing on. We have increased rent assistance, we have - you know, looking at mental health services is also a key part of supporting people here in Canberra and we recently also have looked at - we recently opened a new service for early psychosis as part of Headspace, as the mental health drop-in centres that we've funded around the country. So, we are looking very much at these things. And as I say, there's always more than we can do.

JOURNALIST: What do you make of the pay rise that the Federal Government has announced for child care workers?

LUTHRA: It's been a long time coming. Massive, massive for us. [INDISTINCT] Massive for the sector.

JOURNALIST: In terms of I guess, where wages are currently at, what have you been hearing from perhaps some of your colleagues and perhaps yourself in relation to where wages are? Have they been really sort of not keeping pace with the high cost-of-living and some of the other pressures that we're seeing in the economy?

LUTHRA: Around the sector, definitely. That's the feeling. Like I say, it's been a long time coming and I feel like finally the sector's getting the recognition that it's deserved for a really, really long time. For a long time there has been the feeling that it's not good enough.

JOURNALIST: Can I ask how long have you been in child care?

LUTHRA: Three years now.

JOURNALIST: And have you ever been you know, close to burnout, working longer than you need to?

LUTHRA: For sure. I feel like those words are pretty common, especially towards the end of the year. It's very normal to hear these things. But we've got a great workplace environment here and we're pretty open about it. We've got a really supportive director as well. But it's pretty common. I feel like if you say those words around here anyone around here will be like "uh huh."

JOURNALIST: Do you think the wage increase will be enough to attract more workers into the sector?

LUTHRA: I really hope so. Overall, I really hope that it improves working conditions across the sector.

JOURNALIST: Thanks very much.