Universal Three-Year-Old Preschool

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): I thank the minister for the answer. Is the minister in a position to confirm that the government will be able to guarantee places for four year olds in public preschools, should their parents wish to send them to a public preschool for the second year of their preschool program?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:19): One of the things that the royal commissioner also makes clear in the royal commission report, and as I said in my answer to the member for Morialta's previous question, it is the mixed model that enables us to have full rollout by 2032 but also get to 97 per cent coverage. But she also makes it clear in the report that there is, of course, the opportunity for us there as the custodians of the public system to build extra capacity within there.

The recommendation made by the royal commissioner in her report is that when it commences in 2026 those three year olds who are in a long day care setting will get their 'dosage', as we call it, of three-year-old preschool in that long day care setting. But, of course, we will be offering three-year-old preschool in the government setting as well, but starting to focus on those who at three years of age are not in a long day care setting.

What we know from mountains and mountains of data that is available to us, both nationally and internationally now, is that those kids in that category who could be counted as being three years of age and are not, at that stage, actually in any form of care are disproportionately those kids who are represented as being developmentally vulnerable in that AEDC index. They are the ones that the government system will be focusing on.

Part of the announcement that the Premier and I made on Sunday, when we were joined by the royal commissioner, was the $50 million of capital money. We are not saying that that is the sum total that is going to be needed to deliver. It is not. But that is a sum of money we have committed straightaway, with the support of the Treasurer, to start the work we need to build the capacity in, primarily, the government system to make sure we can play our role in kicking things off and having those 1,000 most disadvantaged South Australian kids receiving up to 30 hours of three-year-old preschool.

When we deliver that, we will be the first jurisdiction, state or territory, to do that in Australia, which I think is something we should be very proud of. As the system moves forward between the commencement in 2026 and full rollout by 2032, the commissioner made it clear—and it is our ambition—that we will also build capacity within the government system so we can offer choice to parents, which I think is the right thing to do.

I think given the very clear evidence that is there about the benefit that three-year-old preschool can have for all South Australian kids—because we need to remember, too, that there are developmentally vulnerable South Australian kids from more wealthy backgrounds or more advantaged areas as well; developmental vulnerability is not actually unique to those from more disadvantaged backgrounds—it is a no-brainer, really, for us that we do everything we can to make sure that we deliver that three-year-old preschool to as many three-year-old South Australians as we can, as fast as we can.