I’ve had a few in the last couple of years – flashes of time I know I’ll remember forever.
There was the moment I stood in the Canberra Press Gallery and watched as marriage equality legislation passed in the Senate and the crowd burst into cheers, tears, and spontaneous song after a long and difficult campaign.
And then last Thursday, there was the moment Victorian Premier Dan Andrews took my breath away.
'[This is] about setting our kids up for the future and investing in women – who for far too long have had to do far too much,' he said.
Announcing an optional additional year of schooling, or pre-kindergarten, the Victorian Premier was joined by NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet in a rare show of bipartisanship. Together, they finally acknowledged what many have been saying for years.
It’s been too hard, for too long.
But now – finally – change.
Since announcing the reform, questions have been raised about how a sector already heaving under the weight of COVID will cope with offering an extra year.
‘The simple truth is: there is no early childhood education without early educators,’ said Dent. ‘What if we suddenly made early childhood education so attractive that anyone who was thinking about teaching starts to think about the early years as being a
really viable option?’
So better pay in a female-dominated industry? Here’s hoping.
The change also signals better days for working mothers.
Imagine it: women with children being able to decide
how to return to work – not by counting pennies, but by considering the multiple options available to them.
Is it perfect? No - few things ever are.
But it’s a start. And one that we’ve been holding out for, for a very long time.
Yours as we walk the new road ahead,
Bojana Kos Senior Content Producer - Future Women
Speaking truth to power in Naarm this NAIDOC Week 🎤
Thanks to our partners Maurice Blackburn Lawyers and Witchery, we’re bringing a panel of exceptional First Nations women together in Melbourne on July 4.
Join trailblazers Tanya Hosch (General Manager of
Inclusion and Social Policy, AFL), Nerita Waight (CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service), Kimberley Benjamin (Filmmaker, Writer and Director) and Bridget Cama (Co-Chair of the Uluru Youth Dialogue), as we look ahead to a future full of possibility, and honour a difficult and traumatic past.
We hope you’ll join us for this very special occasion.
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