Community Preschools Day of Action

Today in Parliament, Abigail contributed to a debate in support of a motion backing the IEU’s Day of Action for community preschools.

Abigail said:

On behalf of The Greens, I wholeheartedly support the motion and thank the Hon. Sarah Mitchell for moving it. We had a great time standing at the top of Martin Place at lunchtime with the over 500 preschool teachers, directors and parents—and no doubt the children who supported them from home. The sector is full of incredibly dedicated, passionate people working in community preschools because they care. They do not view it as babysitting; it is about educating our youngest learners. In the early years of a child's life the brain produces a million neural connections every second. That is when a child is begging for as much information as they can possibly get to set them up for life.

Community preschools are quality centres, with 75 per cent of them rated as exceeding the national standard, as opposed to 25 per cent sector wide. Only 25 per cent of all of those privatised, corporatised, profit‑seeking, cost-cutting long daycare centres exceed the national standard, whereas community preschools are at 75 per cent. The research shows an absolutely undoubted link between centres that exceed those standards and much better education and wellbeing outcomes, such as NAPLAN results and other indicators as children get older. Meeting the standard is not enough to achieve that; they need to be exceeded. This great subsector of the early childhood education sector is doing so well, but its workers are perversely paid less.

The current Government's response to everything that has been uncovered in early childhood education in the past year has been to look at how to punish people for wrongdoing after the event. I ask the Government to look at finding and nurturing the centres that are inherently safer and better quality, encouraging them and getting more of them. The only way to do that is by paying their staff well. That is so logical that it blows my mind that members are even debating it. If we want safe, quality early childhood in this country, we need to invest in the services that are already safer: the community-run preschools. We should support them, back them in and pay them a fair wage.

Read the debate in Hansard here.

15 October 2025

PUBLIC ENERGY FOR PUBLIC GOOD - SIGN THE PETITION!

Electricity is an essential service. But Labor and Liberal governments have sold off NSW’s energy assets and infrastructure, leaving us at the mercy of the private sector for our energy needs. The result has been soaring energy bills, with more and more people being forced into energy poverty.

A privatised energy system will never deliver a cheap and clean energy network - It’s time to take the power back.

As we transition to 100% renewable energy, we must learn from the mistakes of privatisation, ensure our energy assets are kept in public hands, and rein in the actions of private operators.

Communities across NSW have for too long been at the mercy of privatised power network operators who continue to put profit above people, acting recklessly and cutting corners without regard for community expectations.

Recent catastrophic power outages in regional NSW have made headlines for just this - in Broken Hill, the state’s only 100% privatised transmission network operator has failed to deliver a safe and secure energy network, leaving communities in the dark because of mismanagement and neglect in the pursuit of profit.

To build our case for bringing electricity back into public ownership, the Greens are calling for a public parliamentary inquiry into all NSW power network operators, their operation and corporate decision-making practices.

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Community Preschools Day of Action

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