Early Childhood Development

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): When the Premier met with Ms Little, did she provide advice to the Premier as to how the government is going to recruit 800 extra early childhood teachers by 2026?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:24): I thank the member for his question. It is an important one because that very question speaks to the size of the challenge that we have before us. Yes, we did speak about workforce as being a principle challenge and both Ms Little and I were, I think, rather candid with each other, and I understand that during a subsequent conversation that the education minister had with Ms Little, following my meeting with her, this matter was discussed.

We were candid with each other about the size of the challenge. Ms Little was very keen to inquire of me what the government's plans are to resource the effort that is required to meet that challenge. I think my interview with her was as much a testing of how serious the government is to realise its ambition. Naturally, I was able to furnish Ms Little with the policies that we are enacting in order to be able to meet that challenge, not least of which is, for example, the establishment of technical colleges. One of the paths and the streams at those technical colleges, including at the first technical college at Findon, has early childhood education as part of it.

We discussed it. Ms Little has experience in expanding the scope of services in Victoria, which naturally includes those workforce challenges. Not dissimilar to AUKUS, this is something that occupies our minds. We do have the lowest unemployment rate in South Australia in our history. We have never had an unemployment rate as low as the one we have now. That is a blessing. That is a good thing, but it does bring with it its own challenges, particularly when you talk about the scope of the work that is coming the state's way.

We are committed to addressing it in as timely a way as we possibly can. The nature of the mixed model that the royal commission has recommended in no small part is because of the workforce challenge. That informed the royal commission's recommendations, as did the staggered nature of the rollout across the years ahead. While the challenge is real and moving towards us at pace, we believe that we are capable as a government of rising to the occasion to honour the recommendations of the royal commission, because the recommendations of the royal commission have been designed to be achievable, notwithstanding the tight labour market that we have at the moment.