Universal Three-Year-Old Preschool

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:06): Supplementary: given the minister's answer, can he guarantee that none of the centres providing what is described as a three-year-old preschool program, when the government is commencing this program, will be operating with waivers or exemptions from the Education Standards Board for teachers in the classroom?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:07): I think I did actually just answer that question. We have very precise workforce targets which have been set down by Julia Gillard in the royal commission that she handed down last year. They have been updated and I think from memory currently sit at about 880 additional early childhood workers, 800 additional early childhood teachers, and there's some things that we are already doing and announcing to put in place changes to the qualifications so that we can have a birth to five, three-year early childhood teaching qualification, and also 120 extra staff as well.

So we know what the targets are, and those targets will enable us to offer three-year-old preschool starting in 2026 and full rollout by 2032, with consistency right across it. Of course, our aim is not to have waivers. That is every state's ambition. It is not an ideal situation to have waivers of the required qualifications or ratios. As I said, we are doing a number of things to be able to build that workforce. One is changing and creating the new birth to five early childhood teaching course, which will be an important thing, fee-free TAFE courses, which we've already rolled out, and technical colleges that will have that as a stream. There is a $56 million workforce fund, which has already been announced, which will play a really important role in building that workforce as well.

There are some really exciting announcements which have been made at a federal level as well, including around pay for people in the early childhood sector, which will help to make it a career of choice and reward those currently in that so we can retain them as well. Our ambition, absolutely, is not to have those waivers. Our ambition now is not to have waivers, but it is, of course, a challenging environment at the moment, particularly in a state like South Australia where we are practically at full employment.

The work of a teacher, whether it is a primary teacher or a secondary teacher, as well as the work of those who work in a long day-care setting or a preschool, is challenging work, and many would observe that it has become more challenging over the years. We are in a jobs and labour market, I think the Treasurer said today, where there are more advertised job vacancies than there have ever been. There is a lot of choice out there for people, so there are things that we need to do in place as a government to make sure that we can retain the existing workforce and attract new people in there, so that we can meet the targets that were put in place by Julia Gillard of 880, 800 and 120 extra staff, so that when we commence that rollout in 2026, and have full rollout by 2032, we have all the staff we need in place and we will not need waivers. That is absolutely our ambition.