Australia news live: Kyle Sandilands reaches $12m settlement with ARN after radio host’s sacking

The government will spend another $3.6bn to extend funding for a critical pay rise for 60,000 childcare educators, due to expire later this year, avoiding a major pay cut for the industry, following sustained pressure from the sector. Labor said the funding for a 15% increase in childcare salaries will be tied to providers limiting their fee increases. The decision comes weeks before a union coordinated walk off of up to 20,000 childcare workers across the country. The united workers union had warned staff were facing a pay cut of between 4% and 15% cut if the government did not extend the payment. Labor promised educators a 15% pay rise over two years in 2024 also at the cost of $3.6bn, which it hoped would align with a staged pay rise for the sector under the Fair Work Commission’s gender undervaluation decision. But the commission rejected a push to front-load the increases meaning the government has had to fund the gap. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese says: double quotation mark [Early educators] do incredibly important work and they deserve to be fairly paid for it. Only child care centres who agree to limit their fees for parents will be eligible to receive funding for this wage increase for workers.