House of Assembly: Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Contents

CHILDCARE CENTRES

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:50): That being the case, minister, how will the government build 10 childcare centres that you claim to be bigger and more complex than the federal government's program for $1.4 million each when the 38 childcare centres funded in the federal budget were $3 million each?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Education, Minister for Early Childhood Development) (15:50): How we fund these projects will be subject to the budget. You will see how we translate the commitment that was given during the election into how it works on the ground. Those figures will be revealed within the budget. The simple point is that we are bringing together a range of services. The most significant element, which is very clearly set out in the election commitment, is the commitment of recurrent funding to actually coordinate all these services. One of the great strengths of this is the seamlessness of the services. So, when a family and a child actually go into, often, a primary school setting, they do not have to worry about whether it is a health service, a parenting service, a disability service or a childcare service they are getting; they will see all of that in the one site, brought together for the families so they will not have to worry about those matters.