TRANSCRIPT – ABC RADIO SYDNEY BREAKFAST WITH CRAIG REUCASSEL

Angie Bell MP
Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education
Shadow Minister for Youth
Federal Member for Moncrieff

TRANSCRIPT

ABC RADIO SYDNEY – BREAKFAST WITH CRAIG REUCASSEL

28 January 2025

Subjects: Worker Retention Payment another Labor lie, Labor failing educators and families

E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………………

CRAIG REUCASSEL:

Well as you might remember, last week I spoke to Kirsten Drysdale as part of our misinformation segment. She was very angry. She’s on the committee of a small not for profit community child care center, and they were really struggling with getting access to the government’s pay rise for early childhood educators. Here’s how she explained the process.

[AUDIO – KIRSTEN DRYSDALE]

Yes, only lasts two years. It is a two year grant rather than a pay rise. I put the concerns to Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education, Anne Aly, who explained the government’s rationale for the scheme.

[AUDIO – DR ANNE ALY]

So is it a stop gap measure? Listening in our coverage was the Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and the Member for Gold Coast seat of Moncrieff, Angie Bell, who joins us now. Morning opposition minister, morning Angie.

ANGIE BELL:

Good morning Craig, to a scorching Sydney!

CRAIG REUCASSEL:

Yes, yes. Unfortunately, we’re probably topping you guys at the moment. So what’s your stance on this? I mean, it was kind of pitched as a pay rise. Do you understand why the government’s gone with this grant scheme approach?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, look, I think it’s pretty obvious to all those in the sector and all those workers that were promised a pay rise, 200,000 of them in fact, that Labor really has bungled the roll out of this grant funding and left a massive train wreck in its wake. And we heard that frustration from Kirsten Drysdale, who outlined how difficult it is to apply for this grant funding. And you’re right, it is only for two years, and that leaves a lot of questions up in the air, educators wondering who’s going to pay their wages after the two years. Labor really didn’t respect the Fair Work and the independence of the Fair Work Commission with this. They should have been allowed to have that process play out. Because in order to be part of this, this particular pay rise, you need an agreement with the unions. They need an enterprise agreement, your staff, to get this payment. And so, of course, that further strengthens the unions. And there are many really small enterprises and small businesses that Labor are leaving behind that are having a lot of difficulty, and it’s costing a lot of money to actually apply for this funding.

CRAIG REUCASSEL:

So do you think this was, do you think part of this was a kind of backdoor method of increasing unionisation in the childcare sector, buying requiring enterprise agreements?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, it certainly requires enterprise agreements or flexible arrangements, which are difficult to…

CRAIG REUCASSEL:

Which, that doesn’t require a union necessarily, yeah?

ANGIE BELL:

No, but you have to have a very high percentage of flexible agreements, or flexible arrangements in a service, over 90% in fact, to be part of it. So there’s no doubt that the Labor government is making it difficult for those small and medium enterprises. The small services across the nation, there’s many of them, they make up quite a large part of the sector, and they are struggling with this. And so that’s why we’ve seen only 15% of workers receive their pay rise from this policy.

CRAIG REUCASSEL:

Well yeah, the Minister said that 50% of services have now applied, so the money will be backdated. So if your service, if you’re a child care worker, and your service applies late, you will get the back pay. Are you concerned, I mean, I guess my question becomes as well, because there’s a chance that you’ll be the, you know, you’ll be the government after the next election. Do you support this pay rise for early childhood educators?

ANGIE BELL:

Well look, the Minister said that 50% of services, but that actually translates to 85% of 200,000 that have missed out. So the numbers, the core numbers, are only 31,000 workers have received their pay rise at this point out of 200,000. So, Labor can spin the numbers as much as they like Craig, but the truth is that they have bungled this roll out, and they have failed Australians and have failed educators. Now on the backdated number, the minister was a little bit confused. Sometimes, from time to time, she gets confused around that, and she outlined during that interview that services had until the end of the year to back date. In fact, services only have until the end of the financial year to back date. So therefore they better get their skates on, because they need to get in and apply for that if they want to get that money back. And they have to pay their educators up front. This is a cost to the services, and they also have to cap their fees at 4.4% this year, 4.2% the year after. So they are capped. Therefore, they have to make this decision as to whether they can afford to pay their workers. And they can’t easily work that out, which is what Kirsten outlined on your show.

CRAIG REUCASSEL:

And as you said, you are right, it is by the middle of the year that child care centers have to get their applications in. Now let’s say, but by the middle of the year, let’s say it’s 50%, 70%, who knows how many are going to get that in. It could be 100%. They’re going to get this pay rise. They’re going to get it through this grant. If you come in, if you are the Minister of a new Liberal elected government after the next election, will you support the pay rises that have been pushed for the early childhood educators, because, if not, those that have got this grant are going to go backwards substantially.

ANGIE BELL:

Well of course, we have supported in the past these increases to wages, because families are really up against it at the moment, Craig. Around the country, they’re telling me they can’t pay their bills, their electricity bills have increased, the out of pocket costs for early childhood education have gone up by 11% in the last 12 months, and so these increases in wages, of course, are well deserved by the educators. Families need it. They absolutely need it. But it’s not going to touch the sides. It doesn’t touch the sides with the bills that are piling up, especially after Christmas, when those credit card bills come in. Families, really, you know, it’s a difficult position for families to be in, and the only way that that will improve is if we change the government at the election and we bring down inflation for everybody because this pay rises…

CRAIG REUCASSEL:

No, I understand. I understand the other issues. I guess I’m just seeing, for early childhood educators, whether you want to support that, it seems like some kind of support there. Thank you for speaking to us, Angie. We’ve got to get going but appreciate it.

ANGIE BELL:

Thanks so much Craig.

[ENDS]