Preschool Services

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (14:59): My question is to the Minister for Education. Will the government be providing universal access for 15 hours of preschool for all three-year-old children in South Australia in the year 2026?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:59): I thank the member for the question. It's a great opportunity for me to speak about the very bold agenda that the Malinauskas Labor government has set itself in terms of early childhood. The key plank in that agenda is the commitment that we have made to delivering three-year-old preschool. I think what we have said publicly is that we will have that begin from 2026. Of course, there are a number of very big issues that we need to deal with first in terms of making sure that we have capacity in the system for those three-year-old children who we hope will take up preschool.

What we have said—and we have modelled this largely on what is already happening in Victoria, where they announced a 10-year rollout of three-year-old preschool—is that we will do it in stages most likely. First of all, through the royal commission that we have announced, we will look at where existing capacity is, look at where it is not and put together a structured plan going forward about where we need to build more capacity so we can accommodate those three year olds.

I look forward to coming back to the chamber soon, I hope, with more news and updates for members of this place about who will be the royal commissioner and when the royal commission will start. Given that we have given ourselves a pretty ambitious time line in terms of three-year-old preschool beginning by 2026, I am conscious that we will need to get cracking.

But I make no apologies for the fact that this is a very ambitious piece of work. I think it's probably in fact fair to say that the movement of year 7 from primary school to high school was the biggest shift of staff and students that we have ever seen in the South Australian education system. That was handled by the former government. I think three-year-old preschool will most likely be the biggest structural change that we have seen to what we teach our young people.

There is a wealth of information out there—many members of this place, I am sure, will be aware of it—about the importance of the first 1,000 days of a child's life, in particular. I think 90 per cent of the brain development of a young person is complete by the age of five. We know that in terms of the best value a government can get in terms of where it spends its money, the best value we can get is investing in the early years and that's why we are taking this on, but it is a big task.

The member's question specifically pertains to whether or not we will be providing universal access—and, for many years there has been an agreement between successive South Australian governments and successive federal governments for 15 hours of free preschool for four year olds in South Australia. Of course, I welcome the news of a newly elected Albanese Labor government and I look forward, as the education minister in South Australia, to working with them to see if we can't come to an agreement about how three-year-old preschool will be funded as well.