Addressing a Labor caucus room bursting at the seams with 123 members, on the eve of the opening of a parliament to be dominated by his team, a buoyant Anthony Albanese said education issues were top of the agenda.

The parliament must restore trust and confidence in the childcare system, the prime minister told his caucus, declaring politicians must do better as Labor prepares critical safety reforms.

While the government will on Wednesday introduce its signature legislation to cut university debts as its first piece of business in the 48th parliament, new safety and quality measures for early education will soon follow, in response to weeks of sickening reports of alleged abuse at centres.

“No parent should be concerned when their little one is left with a worker in a childcare centre. We clearly need to do better as a society and as governments across the board,” Albanese said on Monday.

Since the last time politicians descended on Canberra, the former Liberal leader Peter Dutton and former Greens leader Adam Bandt have been vanquished by long-odds Labor challengers; the Liberal-National coalition was reduced to a regional rump of seats, then briefly and spectacularly split; and Albanese’s political project to install Labor as what he calls “the natural party of government” took a giant leap forward.

Australian House of Representatives seating chart

Pomp and ceremony will reign on Tuesday as parliament returns formally for the first time since the May election; a 19-gun salute, ceremonies from the governor general and the chief justice of the high court, and swearing in of a large clutch of new members. Ali France and Sarah Whitty, the Labor giantkillers who felled Dutton and Bandt, get the honour of being the first to make their first speeches.

Parliament House buzzed on Monday, full of new politicians lost in the halls – and one returning female MP, who shall remain nameless, who we spotted trying to enter through a clearly marked exit door – and lobbyists and new staffers trying to work out the new lay of the land.

Walking to parliament from his home at The Lodge with son Nathan, Albanese took the podium at Labor’s caucus room – which features 24 new MPs and seven new senators, as he was quick to boast – and called for it to be a “year of delivery”, as well as setting a test for the Coalition.

“Those opposite will have to decide whether they’ll continue the course that they set last term, which essentially was a cul-de-sac … just saying no and not being constructive. Our job will be constructive, to sell our agenda going forward,” he said.

The childcare changes were being written “on a bipartisan basis”, Albanese said, with a focus to “restore confidence” in the system.

Coalition sources said they hadn’t seen the legislation yet, and though they are expected to support it, the opposition may push the government to rally state governments to move faster toward a national database of childcare workers.

Continuing his address, Albanese told his team to focus on making “real practical difference to people’s lives.”

“People don’t expect perfection. They understand that the world will throw things at us, but they expect that we will put them first rather than be focused internally on what goes on in this building.”

It was hard to avoid contrasting this statement with the meeting at the other end of Parliament House, where the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, put on a brave face for the decimated Liberals and Nationals. Just 43 of them remain in the lower house, a full 33 seats short of returning to government, and less than half the government’s huge numbers.

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The new parliamentary seating chart shows how Labor’s election win shifted the tectonic plates of federal politics. There are so many government members that 21 ministers are crammed on the front-most benches, compared to 14 opposite. Labor members are spilling on to the other side of the chamber, forcing the crossbench to shift over to benches normally held by Coalition members.

The symbolism writes itself.

The first Newspoll of the parliamentary year show Labor ahead 57-43, the worst Coalition result in the poll’s 40-year history. Liberals concede they’re in a deep hole, but point to one figure they find encouraging; the Nine newspapers’ Resolve poll shows Ley’s net likeability at +11, the highest of any MP, including Albanese on +4.

“The real work in the parliament of Australia will start this week and I’m up for the job. I’m excited and I know all of you are too,” Ley told her team. Her voice faltered once or twice, as though taking in the empty chairs in the Coalition partyroom as a sign of the job she has signed up for.

Declaring “our policies are up for review, but our values are not”, Ley said the opposition would be constructive where possible but “won’t be getting out of the way” and rubber-stamping Labor’s plans.

“We won’t be judged by the headlines of the day. What we will be judged by is what we offer the Australian people at the next election, and Australians deserve the strongest possible opposition,” Ley told her gathered faithful.

But Ley’s opposition will also be judged against her standard of being a constructive opposition – and their first tests will come as early as Wednesday.