Page 2416 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 13 August 2014
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Perhaps Ms Berry might like to raise those concerns with her colleagues and work within the terms of the latest Productivity Commission inquiry to provide alternate options to address this issue.
The Children’s Educators ACT submission makes the statement that:
The ACT currently has the highest mean cost of children's education and care services in the country. For families facing disadvantage or vulnerabilities, this can put access to a quality early learning space out of reach.
Again, addressing the failings and shortcomings in our own system might be a good place to start.
Ms Berry’s motion goes on to call on the ACT government to seek immediate assurances from the federal government ministers on the continuation of the national partnership agreement and to report to the Assembly later this year. Perhaps a bit of research about where the Productivity Commission is up to in its inquiry might save Ms Berry from embarrassing her education and training minister.
In this year’s federal budget the government has set aside funding to negotiate a one-year extension on universal access with the states and territories for 15-hour programs in preschool in to 2015—I hope you noted that, Ms Berry—while the Productivity Commission holds its inquiry.
I will read that again because I do not think Ms Berry was listening at that point as she and the minister are deep in discussion. In this year’s federal budget the government has set aside funding to negotiate a one-year extension on universal access with the states and territories for 15-hour programs in preschools into 2015 while the Productivity Commission holds its inquiry. It is anticipated that significant reforms will flow from that inquiry, and I think those reforms are likely to be taken up by the government in the federal budget next year.
The federal government’s own education department emphasised the importance of early childhood education in its submission to the Productivity Commission. It said that while historically the Australian government’s support for the sector was primarily to support the workforce participation needs of parents, it notes that more recently, based on evidence about cognitive and non-cognitive development in young children and the role played by quality early learning and development programs, there has been an increased focus on expenditure on the quality of care and early learning.
Their submission goes on to say:
The sector touches the lives of most Australian families … Based on the most recent data available, an estimated 1.2 million children were attending some form of approved child care or early childhood education service in the June quarter 2013.
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