Universal Three-Year-Old Preschool

Mrs PEARCE (King) (14:35): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on the Malinauskas government's commitment to deliver universal three-year-old preschool?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:35): I want to thank the member for King for her question. I can recall having a number of conversations with the member for King during her candidature for the state election. We frequently had chats around the policies that we would love to be able to implement that would make a difference not just in her community but around the state writ large. The member for King, being a mother herself and bearing witness to the power that early childhood education can have in terms of the formation of a young person's life, has been a particularly keen advocate for this policy. I want to thank her for her interest in that regard.

On Monday it wasn't without a degree of satisfaction that I got to stand with the Treasurer and the Minister for Education and announce one of the most substantial funding boosts that we have seen in public education in our state's history: an in excess of $700 million commitment of new money that will be in tomorrow's state budget that will see to the commencement of the delivery of a whole new yearly level of public education delivery in the state of South Australia.

This is a big reform and it is one that we have been working on effectively since the moment we were elected. People will recall that the state government was able to attain the services of none other than the former Prime Minister of the nation, the Hon. Julia Gillard AC, to lead a royal commission. The Gillard royal commission provided the state government with a road map of sorts about how to deliver a step change in young people's education.

It is worth noting that the royal commission established that 23.8 per cent of young South Australians commence reception with at least one form of developmental delay—23.8 per cent, which is in excess of the national average that is closer to 22 per cent. We have the ambition to get that number to below 20 per cent. Early childhood education represents the best chance that the state government has to make an intervention in a young person's life to see the level of developmental delay reduce.

We are very, very proud of the way that the Gillard royal commission has structured the rollout of this program. It has a deliberate disposition to trying to reduce that level of developmental delay, which is why when we break down the funding that was announced through that $750 million there is a range of different efforts, and $127.3 million of that is to provide 30 hours per week of preschool for three and four-year-old children who are at the greatest risk of developmental vulnerability. That 30 hours could be the difference. That 30 hours that isn't currently provided for could be the difference in having a young person commence reception with a form of developmental delay or not, and that in turn can be the difference for the rest of their life.

People who are engaged in early childhood education service delivery have been very vocal since our announcement on Monday in terms of their support. I am going to run out of time to read all the quotes that have come out from organisations like Goodstart Early Learning and Preschool Directors Association of South Australia and the President of Childcare Alliance, but organisation after organisation is out there acknowledging the government's policy in this effort. We are taking a substantial reform and making it a reality, and that is very much happening in this year's state budget.