A Senate inquiry into the troubled sector on Tuesday heard from industry and policy experts as it continues to probe quality and safety in the nation's early childhood education and care system.
The inquiry was sparked after a series of high-profile controversies including claims of sexual abuse, unnecessary restraints and low-quality meals in the sector.
The Early Learning Association Australia said the under-pressure workforce was experiencing "reform fatigue", with workers often unable to undertake professional development due to widespread staff shortages.
The association's chief executive Karina Davis said centres, particularly in regional areas, did not have time to apply for extra funding as they were struggling to open their services due to shortages.
"There is some level of frustration about the fact there's a lot of words about the importance of their work," she said.
"But in the reform, there's investment in the regulator, and there's investment in online training development, but we can't get Victorian wage deals through the retention payment."
The Labor government's early childhood education and care worker retention payment offers a 15 per cent above-award-wage increase for all eligible workers.
It aims to address the sector's persistent challenges of high turnover and workforce stability, but Dr Davis said many time-poor providers had not applied for it as it was "administratively burdensome".
"It tied them to no fee increases and to that level of uncertainty that they know that if it dropped out, they just couldn't afford to continue it," she said.
"They were really loath to offer something that would have to be retracted, and they thought that that would do more damage to their workforce."
Dr Davis said changes to allow the federal government to strip providers of subsidies if they did not meet safety standards were a welcome step, but did not go far enough to improve quality.
Action has been taken against 30 services out of more than 15,000 subsidy-approved operators in Australia since the changes took effect.
That equates to less than 0.2 per cent of the sector.
"It is not a comprehensive, systemic solution to quality," the association, which represents more than 1300 providers, most of them not-for-profits, said in its submission to the inquiry.
"Quality needs to be more than just ensuring a minimum level of child safety."
