Doin’ it for the kids: PM’s pride in childcare legacy
Jacob Shteyman |
There’s little Prime Minister Anthony Albanese loves more than bunnies.
But the South Sydney Rabbitohs tragic delighted children at an early learning centre in Brisbane’s east with a bunny of another kind on the last full day of election campaigning before the Easter long weekend.
Mr Albanese was in his element at the centre, in the electorate of Bonner.
When he wasn’t playing with toy rabbits, he was talking up one of his proudest accomplishments as prime minister: lifting wages for childcare workers.
During his debate with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on Wednesday night, Mr Albanese nominated universal childcare as the change he most wanted to be known for as prime minister.
“We want the universal provision of affordable childcare so that it is as natural to have your child have access to childcare as it is to have access to public education,” he said.
As part of that push, the government legislated a 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators to help plug a labour shortage in the sector.
Workers could soon see an even bigger pay rise, after the Fair Work Commission on Wednesday recommended a wage increase of up to 35 per cent.
“One of the things that my government did as part of our IR reforms was to put gender pay equity in as an objective of the Fair Work Act, something that had to be taken into account,” Mr Albanese said on Thursday.
The industry has said it won’t be able to afford the pay rise on its own, but the prime minister and Treasurer Jim Chalmers would not say whether the government would help fund it, as it had done with the earlier increase.
“There’s still a lot of unfinished business in the material that the Fair Work Commission released yesterday,” Dr Chalmers said.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty around the phasing of any increase in pay, and so we’ll get our head around that.”
Pundits had largely written off the chances of Labor winning seats off the opposition in Queensland, given the party’s poor record in the state in recent elections.
But as polls continue to move in Mr Albanese’s favour, seats like Bonner, held by the LNP’s Ross Vasta on a 3.4 per cent margin, are potentially coming into play.
The prime minister later re-emerged wearing a Rabbitohs polo at a pub in the inner-city suburb of Paddington, where he chatted with university students over a game of pool.
Local nurse Eddie Platt, who lives in the Greens-held seat of Ryan, told Dr Chalmers that Labor had earned his vote, after voting for Greens incumbent Elizabeth Watson-Brown at the last election.
“Keep on doing what you’re doing,” he told the treasurer.
“Cost of living’s a world-wide thing, you guys are doing the best you can.”
AAP
