Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Early childhood education and access to kindergarten is facing an alarming crisis. In 2008, the former federal Labor government, together with Australian states and territories, committed to a National Partnership Agreement to provide, by 2013, 15 hours a week, or 600 hours a year, of early childhood education for children in the year before they start school. To achieve this, the former federal Labor government invested $970 million over five years, including $210.6 million for my state of Victoria.

The Abbott government has failed to guarantee beyond the end of 2014 continued federal government funding of universal access to 15 hours of kindergarten per week. This has put the National Partnership Agreement with state and territory governments in jeopardy, and kindergartens, which are beginning their 2015 enrolment, have no clarity or commitment on the level of government funding they will receive. This is a devastating situation, which is not only putting at risk the quality of early childhood education our children receive but is causing major chaos and uncertainty in the early childhood sector. There is the scary potential that many kindergartens, whose whole operation is centred on providing government funded 15 hours of kindergarten per week, will be forced into closure. Many of these kindergartens actually invested money and borrowed money to extend their facilities so that they could accommodate the 15 hours a week and also continue their three-year-old program. This was particularly so in Victoria, and particularly so in my electorate, where people were very embracing of this commitment to 15 hours and did everything in their power to ensure they could offer the best quality of education to children in those vital early years. Education does not begin when someone gets to university. It does not begin even when they get to primary school. It starts from birth and the most vital years, as research will demonstrate, are in that fundamental preschool time.

I have been contacted by the councils, kindergartens and parents in my electorate who are outraged by this cruel and unfair cut and this growing uncertainty. They have no idea whether or not their children will have access to 15 hours of kindergarten next year. They cannot plan and they have no certainty about what the future holds for their children. These kindergartens are run by committees of management of parents. This is a very difficult and uncertain time.

Australian studies show children who attend preschool or kindergarten go on to score significantly better in year three NAPLAN tests. This is also backed up by international research that shows Australian students with one year of pre-primary education achieve more highly in year four reading, maths and science. It sets them up for life. The early years are the most important in a child's development. Learning begins from birth, and learning and development at each stage of life forms the foundation for the next—every step along the way. The more we invest in the early years of a child's life, the better their outcome. During the period from birth to eight years, children acquire more skills and knowledge than in any other period in their lives. The skills and knowledge they develop in these crucial years are the foundation for learning at school, and for lifelong learning. If we do not maximise every opportunity in kindergartens then we are failing a whole generation of young people and beyond.

This cut which will cost our education system and our economy a lot more in the long run, leaving Australian children to slip between the cracks. But it is more insidious than that, because it will be the families who can least afford it who will miss out the most.

The deepest concern is that the key principle of universal access is that cost does not become a barrier to accessing kindergarten. Should the federal and state governments take away this funding, there will be major fee increases within this sector.

Early Childhood Management Services, a not-for-profit community enterprise providing quality early childhood education and care for children, families and communities across Melbourne, estimates a 70 per cent increase in fees, potentially seeing families paying more than $2,300 per year for a 15-hour program. Many low-income families will just not be able to afford it. Their child will not go to kindergarten and will start school without that vital learning process.

In 2008, before Labor introduced universal access funding for preschool and kindergarten, just 12 per cent of Australian children received 15 hours or more of quality education in the year before school. In 2012 that figure had risen to over 56 per cent. It is time the Abbott government actually listened to their state Liberal colleagues. They know how important preschool and kindergarten are. Instead, Mr Abbott looks set to return us to the situation we had under the Howard government, when just one in 10 Australian children had access to 15 hours of preschool per week. This is simply not good enough.