Happy Early Childhood Educators Day. It's a day when we thank our incredible early learning educators and acknowledge, celebrate and recognise their work and the amazing contribution they make to the lives of our kids, to families and to our communities. We know how important our educators are. They do life-changing work every single day. But we also know that for far too long their contribution has been undervalued, and during this pandemic it took far too long for their essential work to be recognised.

I came to the Senate to do a very specific job. In my first speech, I couldn't have been clearer when I said that I came here to stand up for the children of my state of South Australia. I said:

In early childhood education, we have to be bold in our vision, broad in our approach and brave in our means of delivery, and we need to do so in partnership with our early years educators, in whose hands we place our youngest and most vulnerable minds and yet whose critical work we choose to undervalue …

Those words are just as important to me now as when I first spoke them, and the mission remains just as relevant. Today, on Early Childhood Educators Day, I want to thank those caring for our kids in South Australia, and I say to them: I want you to know that, alongside my Labor colleagues, I am fighting for you in the Senate and I am fighting for the children you care for. Nothing will ever steer me off course from that work. Happy Early Childhood Educators Day, and thank you for everything that you do.