Submission on the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Bill 2024

SNAICC welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Education and Employment Legislation Committee’s Inquiry into the provisions of the Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Bill 2024 (the Inquiry).

SNAICC is the national non-government peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, working for the fulfillment of the rights of our children, to ensure their safety, development and wellbeing. Our members are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations (ACCOs), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led early childhood education and care (ECEC) services and jurisdictional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak bodies.

The Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Bill 2024 directly impacts our communities, families and sector, and SNAICC is broadly supportive of the changes proposed, specifically the 15% wage increase for ECEC workers. SNAICC recognises this wage increase as an important step in both recognising the skills and value of early educations and in addressing workforce challenges in the ECEC sector. This action is a strong foundational step towards addressing pay equity issues across the sector.

However, broader reform is needed to address workforce challenges across the ECEC sector to create meaningful, ongoing change. SNAICC supports raising ECEC workforce wages by 25% in line with longstanding sector calls and the full implementation of the recommendations in the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry Report ‘A path to universal early childhood education and care’. In alignment with the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (the National Agreement), ECEC workforce reform must be undertaken in genuine partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peaks, experts and ACCOs.

SNAICC is supportive of the wage increase outlined in the Bill. It is critical that eligibility requirements and implementation approaches do not inadvertently exclude ACCO ECEC providers or create additional administrative or operational burdens for these services. Designing the approach in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will ensure that these challenges are well understood and responded to effectively.

SNAICC’s submission highlights potential implementation challenges and recommends:

• The Australian Government work in partnership with SNAICC to ensure that ACCO ECEC services:
  • are not unintentionally excluded from accessing the wage increase, and
  • are provided with direct, tailored support and guidance needed to meet the grant conditions and access the grant payment to fund the wage increase.
• Implementing targeted exemptions to the grant requirement to limit fee increases to 4.4% for ACCO ECEC services.
• All ECEC reform be undertaken in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak bodies, organisations and communities in line with the Priority Reforms in the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.