Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last week, like thousands of children across Australia, my daughter, Zara, started her first year of primary school, excited to dive straight into learning. A lifetime of adventure awaits her. She is desperate to learn to read and write like her brother, to add and subtract, and to create lots of little friendships. As we take on this adventure as a family, I am so grateful for the foundation of the early education she had before. I've spoken in this chamber often of the transformational power of high-quality early education and how it can help unlock the magic of learning in the early years and unlock that incredible brain development that happens in the early years. Educators do life-changing nation-building work every single day, and we are grateful for every moment of their work.

It is my deepest ambition that every child in Australia can experience this too. Every child deserves access to a brilliant early education, and, if we can provide that for them, we amplify our power to smash intergenerational disadvantage, to create opportunity and to rewrite our country's future. It couldn't be more exciting and it is within our reach. From January this year, Australian children are eligible for three days of subsidised early childhood education and care because of our government. It's life-changing, it's good for kids, it's good for families and it's good for our economy. (Time expired)