Early Childhood Education

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:56): My question is to the Minister for Education. Could the minister please inform the house about the $715 million—which I was pleased to see in the state budget this year—that is going to roll out towards early learning? With your leave, Mr Speaker, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: Could the minister please explain to the house about this $715 million? When are the projects going to roll out, and will they help with early learning in regional areas and child care and that whole spectrum of early education?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:56): I thank the member for MacKillop for the question and his interest in these issues and particularly his interest in the rollout of three-year-old preschool, which will be starting, as members of this place know, from 2026. My short answer to the member for MacKillop's question around will it benefit regional parts of South Australia is absolutely it will. In fact, I think it is safe to say that there are regional parts of South Australia, hopefully some in the member for MacKillop's area as well, that will benefit quite early.

I will go on to provide a little bit of detail around exactly how that $715 million that the member for MacKillop referred to in this question is being spent. But at the heart of our ability to make sure that our rollout is quick—it is going to the fastest rollout of three-year-old preschool in Australia—is the model that was recommended by the Hon. Julia Gillard in her royal commission report, which recommended a mixed model of delivery, which meant we would be using long day care services to provide some of the 'dosage', which is the language we use with three-year-old preschool, as well as doing that in government preschools as well.

That not only means that we get to use the existing workforce right around the state but it also means that we can ramp it up much faster than we would be able to if we didn't have that mixed model, which is a good thing. If we are to compare the rollout that we have signed up to here in South Australia to the rollout of other jurisdictions—and at top of mind is Victoria, particularly, where I think it was in a matter of hundreds of three year olds who were given access to three-year-old preschool in the first year of their rollout—we are much more likely here in South Australia to see that number in the thousands, which is pretty significant given that the number of three year olds, roughly speaking, that we have in our state each year is around, I think, the 19,000 mark.

So it is very pleasing that the model that was recommended and the model that we have adopted will mean that lots of places aren't waiting very long to actually get access to their 15 hours of preschool, which I know is something that will be really welcomed by the member for MacKillop and also something that will be welcomed by members from both sides of parliament across this chamber.

I said just a few moments ago that I would give a more detailed breakdown of where that $715 million over the next five years, which was committed in the most recent budget, is going to be spent. We are talking about, of course, the provision of additional preschool hours for 2,000 children at the greatest risk of developmental vulnerability, which is really important. The very first recommendation in Julia Gillard's royal commission report was to get developmental vulnerability down, which is really important.

I know that the Minister for Child Protection would agree with me, that a lot of the work we need to do starts in the early years. Certainly, it's something that I see every single day in the education system: those students who go and start reception are already behind the student who is sitting next to them. That work of getting them to catch up and keep up gets progressively harder as it goes. The recommendation was for the 1,000 most disadvantaged children in our system at three years and then also at four years to get a double dose of preschool, which is something we are going to do, we have signed on for and we have put aside $127 million for that.

Growing the workforce is a key plank in making sure that we can deliver on our commitment, and we have put aside $96.6 million over four years to do that. That's going to be particularly important in the case of regional areas, like the one that the member for MacKillop represents here, to make sure that we can retain and attract the workforce we need, to make sure that in our state where there are lots of what we refer to as those thin markets, where there are smaller numbers, we actually have the workforce there to make sure that all South Australian three year olds can benefit from this.