Question Time

Universal Three-Year-Old Preschool

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:04): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier guarantee that all services participating in his government's three-year-old preschool program from 2026 and beyond will have all the relevant qualified staff required and will not need to seek any waivers or exemptions from the Education Standards Board?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:04): I thank the member for Morialta for his question and his interest in our rollout of three-year-old preschool. As members of this place, I am sure, will know, and as the Premier and I have spoken about at great length again this week, we have just announced $715 million over the next five years to actually have what we need to commence the rollout of three-year-old preschool in 2026. The model that was recommended by the royal commissioner, Julia Gillard, was a mixed model, which will have some of the three-year-old preschool provided in government settings and some provided in long day-care settings.

We therefore are very keen for those long day-care providers to partner with us. Kim Little, who is the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the Office for Early Childhood Development, was in charge of putting together that rollout. Kim will be making sure that as we seek to partner with those long day-care providers, who express an interest—and we anticipate that many will—there will be some very stringent requirements which are put in place to make sure that they meet requirements that we are setting to make sure that what they provide by way of three-year-old preschool is teacher-led, play-based learning, which is at the heart of what good preschool is, and to make sure that the staff they have have the qualifications that are needed.

That was the recommendation by the royal commissioner, Julia Gillard, around how we could fast-track our rollout. The rollout that we are moving towards here in South Australia is a quick one. It will be much faster than the rollout across the border in Victoria.

One of the reasons we will be able to do that is because the mixed model lets us do that by leveraging the capacity of the long day-care sector, the staff it has and the facilities it has, but it will not be a case of just simply putting up your hand and therefore being able to be a part of it. There will be a number of things that will be put in place around the qualifications of staff, around the infrastructure, to make sure that there is consistency in terms of what is provided regardless of whether you are getting that dose of three-year-old preschool, regardless of whether it is 15 hours or, in some of our intensive hubs, 30 hours, to make sure there is consistency of what is provided between the government and the long day-care providers, who we know are keen and who we will welcome to come on board if they can meet the requirements that we put in place.