QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE › Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers (Special Account) Bill 2024
Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) (14:37): Thanks, Senator Tyrrell. As I indicated, the government's focus to date has been on long daycare centres, on outside of school hours care centres. That has been our focus up until now. I did hear Senator McKenzie—I think it was—say that it was a good question that you asked, which is interesting coming from a member of the opposition, because they did nothing about early childhood wages for the 10 years they were in government. They did nothing about the spiralling cost of child care for Australian families while they were in government. As usual, with Senator McKenzie, they are very wise when in opposition; they are just not very good when in government. The PRESIDENT: I'm sorry, Senator Tyrrell. Do you rise on a point of order? Senator Tyrrell: I would like to redirect us to: are they going to be included at some point? The PRESIDENT: Is it a point of order? Senator Tyrrell: Apologies, yes, it's a point of order. The PRESIDENT: Senator Watt, I will redirect you back to the question. Senator WATT: We will give these things consideration going forward but to date our focus has been on the long daycare sector and outside of school hours care sector. There may be other sectors I have forgotten but they have been the primary focus. But we will give these kinds of things consideration going forward. Again, I would be happy to discuss those matters with you.