###### PILLAR – GOVERNANCE continued
REPORTING TOPIC Advocacy
G8 Education believes in being an advocate for children and in advocating the importance of early childhood education to
government, sector and the community. Our efforts to raise awareness of the positive impact of early learning and to build
further recognition of the early childhood education profession continued in 2022, and we joined sector-wide discussions with
government focused on improving affordability of care, increasing educator wages and supporting greater access to quality
early learning and care for children with complex needs.
The Board of G8 Education has approved the Company's membership of the following organisations:
###### AUSTRALIAN CHILDCARE ALLIANCE (ACA)
The ACA works on behalf of early
learning service providers to ensure
families and their children have an
opportunity to access affordable,
high quality early learning services
throughout Australia. It has extensive
experience in the fields of early
learning, training and management
and works with Federal and State
Governments, regulatory authorities
and other stakeholders to ensure
that families are supported into the
future with a sustainable, affordable
and viable sector.
In 2022 G8 Education's primary advocacy activities centred around
its involvement as a member of the Board of ELACCA. During
2022, ELACCA's advocacy activities focused on:
- Ensuring the health and safety of children and educators during
the COVID-19 outbreaks in 2022;
- Improving the equity and access to early education for all
Australian children. In this respect, it was pleasing to note the
Government increased the base entitlement to Child Care
Subsidy for indigenous children from 24 to 36 hours per fortnight
from September 2022; and
- Responding to the workforce shortages in the sector through
government funded increased wages for educators and an
increased intake of migrant teachers.
In addition to its ELACCA activities, G8 Education's own advocacy
activities included:
- Providing a pre-Budget submission and meeting with various
Ministers to propose improvements in child care subsidy for
in-home care to improve affordability for families and changes to
the tax system to encourage employers to provide early learning
cost support as part of salary packaging; and
- Participating in discussions with Government, peak bodies
and other large sector providers in relation to the potential for
multi-employer bargaining to be implemented in the sector,
alongside a material wage increase for educators that is funded
by Government.