Thomas introduced a motion to the ACT Legislative Assembly calling on the ACT Government to adopt a significant package of reforms to address poor practice and regulatory issues in the early childhood education and care sector. 

The motion included 13 measures:establishing a public register of regulatory enforcement actions related to child safety breaches, exploring options to cap centres’ surplus revenue to ensure sufficient investment back into the workforce, establishing an online portal for verifying Working With Vulnerable People card numbers, updating the ACT's early childhood strategy with a renewed focus on child safety; and more.

The motion followed Thomas’ push to release thousands of government documents revealing disturbing cases of child abuse, inadequate supervision and regulatory failure in some parts of Canberra’s early childhood sector. The measures it contained were shaped by extensive consultation with families, educators and sector representatives, and the findings of a community survey circulated by Thomas. The motion was supported by Early Childhood Australia, who contributed to its development.

ACT Greens MLA Laura Nuttall moved an amendment to the motion requiring the Government to evaluate the following list of proposed reforms in the motion, consult with the sector, and implement these actions if they are found to be positive for ECEC in the ACT on balance – rather than committing immediately to implementing all 13 reforms. This amendment received unanimous support. While Thomas spoke of his disappointment that the Assembly could not commit to implementing any of the 13 reforms without further evaluation and consultation, particularly given some of the measures are already enacted in other states, but ultimately supported the amendment on the basis of being confident that further evaluation of the proposed reforms would only confirm the need for their implementation.

Canberra Liberals MLA Elizabeth Lee circulated amendments to remove proposed planning restrictions from the motion, and to remove the call for exploration of establishing caps on surplus revenues, arguing these represented unreasonable impediments to the operation of the market. Thomas argued that market dynamics alone were insufficient to ensure quality in the early childhood sector, given the inability of children to advocate for themselves and the lack of transparency provided to families to ensure the quality of early learning centres tasked with caring for their children. This amendment was opposed by ACT Labor, ACT Greens, Thomas and independent MLA Fiona Carrick.

The motion, as amended by the Greens, was then unanimously passed by the Assembly. You can find the final motion here. The Government is required to provide an update on their progress implementing the reforms in September 2026, with a final report and updated early childhood strategy to be tabled in 12 months.