Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says wage increase for childcare workers will secure the future of early education

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Childcare workers will see a 15% wage increase, rolled out over 12 months from this December. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the government-funded scheme will ensure the future of the sector.

Transcript

00:00This 15% pay increase is justice.

00:05Justice for the work that early educators do.

00:09Not just in minding our children, because that's not what they do.

00:14Yes, they mind them, but they care for them and importantly they educate them as well.

00:21Human brain development occurs more in the first five years than in the rest of people's

00:27lives and that is why this is so important.

00:31That is why this is a reform whose time has come.

00:35It is no accident that feminised industries like childcare and aged care, social work,

00:42other industries, which are dominated by women, were the most underpaid.

00:49That's because these workers here know that if they take industrial action it has a devastating

00:55impact like our nurses and other sectors that have been dominated by women.

01:00The care sector needs to be valued and that's why it needs government and the Fair Work

01:05Commission to take that into account.

01:08This is good for these workers.

01:11Importantly it's good for our children as well.

01:13Since we came to office we see an increased number of people working in the sector, increased

01:18number of centres being opened.

01:21This will apply across the board for not-for-profit, for-profit, for out-of-school hours care,

01:28as long as those sectors as well pass on the benefit to families, which is why it's good.

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