Wednesday, 31 August 2022

Bills

Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill 2022

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Ms HUTCHINS:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Ms HALFPENNY (Thomastown) (10:36): Deputy Speaker, have I congratulated you on becoming the Deputy Speaker? Congratulations.

I also rise to make a contribution on the Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. In true form it is Labor governments that really make the big contributions to education, care and increasing opportunities for young people in our country. It was the Gillard-Rudd governments that introduced the national quality framework for early childhood centres to ensure that our young people are given the best of care and that they are also protected within those childcare settings. This national framework, which of course all states and territories signed up to, needs at various times to be refined, to be reviewed and to be looked over to see whether it is doing what it needs to do. Times have moved on. Community standards and expectations have increased. With the need for and reliance on good-quality child care, demand has also been growing. There was a review over something like five years, and as a result of that review we are now at this point when we are talking about or debating today some amendments to early childhood legislation to ensure that we continue to protect children in childcare and kindergarten settings, as well as ensuring that they do get the best possible care both in their educational standards and also in the environment in which they are being cared for.

The Andrews Labor government is proud to be embarking on a whole lot of early childhood investments and radical reform. You need not only to think about the recent announcement that we are going to address families’ concerns around cost of living by announcing that both three-year-old and four-year-old kindergarten next year will be free, thereby reducing the cost burden on families, but also of course to look at the revolutionary announcement around kindergarten—expanding to 30 hours per week, rather than the 15 hours at the moment for both three- and four-year-old kindergarten. This is because all the study and the research show that organised play-based learning is very, very important for the development of children. We want to make sure that children in Victoria and across the country really do get the best opportunity to be their very best throughout life and to do the things that they need and want to do. So this is another step in terms of that, because while we further formalise or try to bring in a system of 30 hours paid early education, we want to make sure that the standards are high, the best that they can be, and we also want to make sure again that our children are safe and protected within those environments.

I know many kindergartens have been built, and long day care centres as well, in the Thomastown electorate, particularly in some of those newer areas, such as North Epping and Wollert. I think there have been about four. Really they are combined centres for all things. There is the primary school. Then we have got the kindergarten/childcare centre and the child and maternal health centres, and there are also community centres—all built within the one site. So it really becomes a hub of activity, where young families can go, meet, talk to each other and have events as well as of course have services such as maternal and child health care, child care and early learning such as the kindergarten programs. The minister at the table, the Minister for Corrections, was involved in the accreditation of kindergartens and the Kinder Tick so that kindergartens that have the full accreditation can put signage up to show the public that they are fully accredited and that they meet certain standards, so parents have an even better opportunity and the full information upon which to make an informed decision about where it is that they want their children to go.

We have also announced the establishment of 50 government-operated childcare centres over the decade. In fact we have been very excited since the changing of the federal government to a Labor government. I think we can all expect a whole lot of work going on to support and enhance child care across the whole of Australia, and of course Victoria are looking at doing their bit to make sure that they are part of that reform and those improvements.

Just getting on to the actual elements of the bill, the bill strengthens the safety of children in early childhood services and improves oversight and compliance tools for the Australian regulatory authorities. The bill has two main objectives: to implement the outcomes of the review of the national quality framework, which I mentioned earlier, and the national regulatory scheme for early childhood services; and also to enable the child safe standards to be enforced in early childhood services by the existing regulator, which is the Secretary of the Department of Education and Training. I know when I was on the inquiry into institutional child abuse we did look at schools, sporting bodies, churches and other organisations and made many recommendations around how to make institutions safer for children to prevent abuse occurring. We did find that there was not much in terms of regulation or protections within the early childhood settings, and this legislation builds on ensuring that there are stronger protections within early childhood settings when it comes to the treatment of children.

The national quality framework operates as an applied national law scheme, and the national law is enacted by Victoria. We are the actual host jurisdiction. Once it is enacted here it will be applied to other jurisdictions as their own law, except in Western Australia, where there is corresponding legislation. Changes to the national law included in this bill will act to address gaps between the national principles for child safe organisations and the national quality framework; require that all family day care coordinators complete child protection training prior to commencing employment; improve safety and oversight in family day care by enabling improved access for regulatory authorities to family day care residence-level information that is on the family day care register—so access to better information with which to make an assessment of the standards at that family day care; and reduce the burden for education and care services through an update of the guide to the national quality framework, which will provide better resources and tools to help providers and services more easily comply with regulatory requirements.

We know that in some circumstances while we require the utmost regulation to ensure there is protection and good standards we also want to balance that with the additional requirements that we impose on organisations and people in order to carry out their obligations under those regulations. The state Andrews Labor government is mindful of that balance and those concerns, and that is why in this legislation we are also looking at not reducing the standards of the regulations and the requirements but making sure they are done in such a way that it is as easy as possible for the organisation, early childhood educator, education centre or childcare centre to comply. Also the bill will improve oversight and compliance tools for regulatory authorities by specifying that the regulatory authority can administer questions to an applicant for provider approval in relation to their fitness and propriety. This is about something we talk about quite a bit—the idea that legislation is a living thing in a way and you often have to be updating it and making sure that it fits. This is also about ensuring that the legislation we have is working as best it can and making sure that there are no gaps in that system. These transitional reforms really speak for themselves. This is part of our ongoing reform to the early education sector.

Mr EREN (Lara) (10:46): I am delighted to be able to speak on this very important bill before the house today, and I am happy that the opposition is also supporting this bill. The Andrews Labor government understands the importance of getting it right. Education is the key to everybody’s future, the economy, and an early start is the best start, so giving children the best start to life is so important. We know from scientific evidence now that the years from birth to about seven years of age are the learning years and what children learn in that time they carry with them for life. Obviously it is a very important aspect of our society. Everybody is entitled to a decent education, and that is what we do best.

We have invested record amounts of money into education to make sure that no child misses out on a good opportunity to educate themselves and have a better life. That is why we have got record investments from early learning all the way to completion of secondary school. I am proud of the investments that are ongoing in my electorate, in Lara—all the early childhood learning centres and including the primary and secondary schools in my electorate. Every single school has had an upgrade in my electorate, which is such an important part of making sure that we have a fair society, a society that does not judge on socio-economic background. I have this saying: ‘What if the cure for cancer was in the mind of a child that could not afford proper education?’. I think it is important to make sure that all children have a level playing field in terms of education. That is why this bill before the house is such an important aspect, working collaboratively with the national government to ensure that we have the best standards when it comes to early childhood learning.

These amendments are to improve educator practices, qualifications and understandings. They intend to also improve, in families, understanding and awareness of service quality, safe practices and risk mitigation. The bill has two main objectives: to implement the outcomes of the review of the national quality framework, the national regulatory scheme for early childhood services, and to enable the child safe standards to be enforced in early childhood services by the existing regulator in an integrated manner.

Education ministers have agreed nationally that the national quality framework review changes will commence from July 2023, and passage of these amendments through the Parliament is time critical obviously. Victoria is the host jurisdiction of the national law and needs to ensure that the bill is passed this year to enable the implementation of the outcomes in mid-2023. The passage of the bill this year is also critical to ensure the integrated sector regulator provisions for the child safe standards can commence on 1 January 2023, along with the rest of the new enforcement regime for the standards. The bill also makes maternal and child health amendments to safeguard the prerequisites to become part of the MCH workforce and is consistent with the government’s commitment to deliver a high-quality service into the future.

The Andrews Labor government is proudly embarking on the largest early childhood investment in this state’s history to give every Victorian child the best start in life. As part of this government’s landmark reform agenda we will be making kindergarten programs free from 2023, which will increase access to quality childhood education and give Victorian families more choice, more flexibility and more money saved. The cost of living is a big factor in our communities, and this is one way of alleviating one of those costs associated with having a family. I am certainly proud of these investments that are being made by the Andrews Labor government.

We will also establish 50 government-operated childcare centres over the decade, ensuring that childhood education is available in areas with the greatest unmet demand and that it can provide convenient access for working parents. Again, we do not leave anyone behind, as I have indicated, and we are proud of that on our side of politics. Everybody deserves equal access to educational institutions, starting very early on.

Obviously we will transition four-year-old kindergarten to pre-prep, with 30 hours of learning by 2032, creating a high-quality universal program to give four-year-old kids the opportunity to learn through play. This is all in addition to our ongoing nation-leading rollout of 15 hours of three-year-old kindergarten for Victorian children by 2029. These transformational reforms speak for themselves. This government is absolutely committed to delivering quality, safe and accessible early childhood education for every Victorian child, and this bill is yet another example of that commitment.

Building on our track record by amending the laws that regulate the quality and safety of early childhood services, this bill will ensure that oversight and compliance tools for early childhood regulators are as robust as possible. This bill is important so that we can implement the outcomes of the five-yearly review of the national quality framework. The national quality framework amendments will strengthen the safety of children in early childhood services and improve oversight and compliance tools for the regulatory authority. The amendments are likely to lead to improvements in educator practices, qualifications and understandings and improvements in families’ understanding and awareness of service quality, safe practices and risk-mitigation.

The bill will also support early childhood services to comply with child safe standards so that protecting children from harm and abuse is embedded in the everyday practice of leaders, staff and volunteers. This government consulted with the early childhood sector in late 2021. They expressed a strong desire to have integrated regulation of the child safe standards to minimise confusion, duplication and uncertainty for their services.

This bill also contains amendments to the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 relating to maternal and child health nursing services. The Victorian Maternal and Child Health Service provides comprehensive and high-quality nursing care to Victorian families in the important early years. The Andrews Labor government is committed to protecting the prerequisites for maternal and child health nurses to maintain the high standard of universal primary health services for all Victorian children and their families from birth to school age. Also the maternal and child health amendments in this bill safeguard the prerequisites to become part of the maternal child health workforce and are consistent with the Andrews Labor government’s commitment to delivering high-quality maternal and child health services into the future. The amendments will not only safeguard the quality of maternal and child health nurses but also ensure that Victorian families will receive continued support from birthing services in the community where they live. It will support critical aspects of post-birth, infant and maternal care, such as breastfeeding, and maternal health and wellbeing.

The health, safety and wellbeing of children attending early childhood services is of the utmost importance for our government. The vast majority of Victoria’s early learning services do a great job in providing education and care to children, but when non-compliance is identified the Department of Education and Training and the regulator take action, especially if the safety, health or wellbeing of children is at risk. That is why it is so important that we ensure that the early childhood regulator is well equipped to uphold quality and safety across these services.

In the short time that I have available I do want to mention how proud I am of the extraordinary early childhood centres in my electorate of Lara, including the new Korayn Birralee Family Centre, which was funded by the City of Greater Geelong council with $1.6 million from the Andrews Labor government. It is a fantastic facility which is linked to the local primary school so that the transition from early learning to primary school is there—and that is the model that is superior in terms of getting children ready for future education opportunities. I am so proud of that facility.

This bill further complements the Andrews Labor government’s life-changing reforms to early childhood, giving our youngest Victorians the best start and the best opportunities in life. That is why I am proud to be part of this government. With my term in office coming to a close as my retirement comes nearer, those investments continue, and I am so proud of them. That is why I am really proud to be a member of a Labor government that cares for all Victorians. That is why I commend this bill to the house and wish it a speedy passage.

Mr FOWLES (Burwood) (10:56): What a pleasure it is to follow my friend the member for Lara in what will sadly be one of his last contributions in this place. He has had an outstanding career. He was a terrific Minister for Sport, and I had plenty to do with him when he was in that role. I want to take this opportunity to thank him for all of his service to the people of Geelong and thank him for his very, very hard work for that community and for the people of Victoria over a long period of time. I wish you well, brother, and I hope that your retirement is full of grandkids and joy and long lunches and other sources of delight and happiness.

It is a pleasure to get on my feet for the Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, which I think is being supported by those opposite, which is good news. It gives me an opportunity to talk first about the reform principles that this government is bringing to the early childhood sector. We are embarking on the largest investments in the history of our state to give every Victorian child the best start in life. And frankly, as parliamentarians and as a government, I am not sure that you could really take more delight in any other fields of influence or any activities of government than ensuring that kids get the very best start in life and get a fantastic education. The best start in life of course includes some of the maternal child health matters, and I will come to those in a moment, but really it is a core tenet of this government that we want to give kids a terrific start. I know that the former Premier of South Australia Jay Weatherill has been very active in this space.

It is important for governments right around the world, and Australia has been a bit of a laggard in this regard, to consider preschool education—three-year-old and four-year-old, whether it is kindergarten, whether it is pre-prep; it has many names—as part of the educational journey for all kids, not just those who can afford full-time kindergarten privately, but all Victorian children. We are moving, historically, to a model where four-year-old kinder will become a genuine pre-prep year with 30 hours of learning by 2032. Now, it is over a decade, and I appreciate that will not be fast enough for some. But let us talk about just how significant a change this is. We are moving from a model where we go from 13 years of education to 14 years. That is a significant increase. The 14th educational year will provide kids with all the tools they need to make sure that when they do commence prep at their local primary school they are beautifully equipped for that learning experience and will continue to get the best out of their educational journey.

Of course it is not just the educational outcome that is important here. We know that childcare costs are substantial. We know that working families are struggling with a whole range of cost-of-living pressures at the moment. One of the most important aspects of this reform is that by freeing up primary caregivers for those 30 hours a week we do some wonderful things for the economy and some wonderful things for those primary caregivers. This is a reform that is not just an educational reform, it is an economic reform. It is a reform that means that primary caregivers, who still—the majority of them—overwhelmingly are women, will be able to re-enter the workforce and will be able to do so in a way that is not cost prohibitive. They will not be left with that decision of return to paid work but actually only net pennies in the dollar, sort of thing, out of that transition economically. To be able to say, well, the education piece, the fact that I will have 30 hours of child care, albeit in an educational setting, delivered up to me means that I can go to work and not be deducting the cost of that child care against the net of tax income earned and ending up with a pittance—this is an important structural reform. We know that there are a great many pressures attached to skill shortages right across the economy at the moment and it is critical that we do everything we can to boost the participation rate and, in particular, support women back into work.

In addition to this transition of four-year-old kinder to pre-prep, with 30 hours of learning by 2032, we are of course making kindergarten programs free from next year. That is one of the reasons why it is important to get this legislation passed in this—the 59th—Parliament, because we need to make sure that the framework is in place. I am pleased that the free kinder program is bipartisan policy. I am pleased that the opposition have chosen to support it, because it is one of the many good ideas that this government has advanced. I note that some members opposite have described us in recent times as bereft of ideas but have, in the same breath, adopted various measures that we are putting before the Victorian people or we are implementing as a government. I think that speaks to the fact that all of the innovation in government, all of the innovation in education and all of the innovation in health is delivered by those on this side of the chamber.

With the rollout of free kindergarten also, in addition to what I have spoken about—the 30 hours a week of four-year-old kinder—we are going to get up to 15 hours of three-year-old kinder by 2029, again delivering enormous benefits educationally and delivering enormous benefits economically and delivering enormous benefits, particularly for women, who so often are the primary caregivers.

I do just want to in the time left talk a little bit about some of the other pieces of this bill, including regulations for early childhood services. There is a national quality framework. That is a very good thing. There are child safe standards in there, and we need to make sure that that framework is in place and that the child safe standards are adopted in our legislation. That is all about strengthening the safety of children in early childhood services and improving all the oversight and compliance tools for the regulatory authority.

This is regulation with a purpose; it is not arbitrary. It is all about, within the sector, improving the educative practices, improving qualifications, improving families’ understanding and awareness of service quality and improving the management of risk. Nothing could be more important than the safety of children, and our consultations with the sector made it very clear that we want the child safe standards integrated rather than sitting to one side, to make sure that they are fully breathed into life by the service providers but also to make sure that their work in doing that is not unnecessarily hampered by red tape.

There are also some amendments which go to the quality of maternal and child health services. The Victorian maternal and child health service provides comprehensive and high-quality nursing care to Victorian families in those very important early years—early years that, particularly for first-time parents, can be marked by periods of anxiety when children are unwell. As we know, with the journey we have been on in the last couple of years, early years are when so many of those critical vaccinations are given to children, and that is a very, very important part of the maternal and child health program. The Andrews Labor government has committed to maintaining the high standard of universal primary health services for all Victorian children and their families from birth right up until school age. The amendments in this bill safeguard the prerequisites to become part of that maternal and child health workforce, and they are consistent with delivery of quality and having quality standards for all people—all of our magnificent frontline workers who are dealing with people in the health and allied services. These amendments not only safeguard the quality of those services but also ensure that Victorian families receive that continuity of support in the community where they live. I think, again, to go to that sort of first-time parent anxiety, it is just critical that there is a touchstone—a first point of contact, a first port of call—for those parents in navigating the trials and tribulations of the first few years of having made a person.

We do need to pass this bill. We need to pass it this year. We need to do that to ensure the implementation of the outcomes of the five-year national quality framework review, which will be coming in mid-2023. There has been agreement right around the nation on this from all state and territory education ministers. I will finish by just saying that Victoria leads the nation in delivering quality early childhood education, with 28 per cent of our services exceeding the national quality standard rating. That speaks to the strength of the sector and the strength of the government in delivering these important reforms.

Mr J BULL (Sunbury) (11:06): I am always pleased to follow on from the hardworking member for Burwood. The member is absolutely right in identifying and highlighting those key and critical investments that we can make in our smallest Victorians, making sure that through a whole series of reforms, through initiatives, through local projects, through early investment, this government is continuing to support those young people wanting to get the very best start in their lives. As other members have said, I am also very pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. This is another piece of legislation that goes to the Andrews Labor government’s commitment to and passion for supporting the youngest Victorians right across the state. This is a government that knows and understands the critical importance of early investment, of supporting young people, of investment in their education and in their future and of helping our children be their very best as they go on and navigate life.

This is a reforming government. We are all about making sure that we are investing in those critical areas, those big reforms and those new ideas and changing the way that we do things within the state. That is why recently we have had—other members have mentioned it in their contributions this morning—that significant investment, over $9 billion, to reform kinder, to provide free kinder and to save families up to $2500 per year. We know of course from all of the research and all of the data that are provided to us how important those early years are within a three- and four-year-old’s life to make sure that those lessons and that education are provided. That is why this reform is so important. It is also why this bill continues to ensure that we are doing the things that matter most to young people in their lives and to their families. Whether you live in the city, whether you live in the suburbs or whether you live in rural and regional Victoria, we are making sure that we are following the advice provided by experts around the research and the data and that we are doing those things and making that investment right across the state.

What other members have mentioned also in their contributions this morning is an acknowledgement and a recognition that that work is fundamentally important. But of course I do want to take the opportunity to mention all of those workers in early childhood education who do an incredible job. Acting Speaker Halfpenny, I am sure within your local electorate and your local community, and as I think all members will recognise, our early childhood educators play an extraordinarily important role, making sure that our young people are getting the very best opportunities, working hard to work with them, to listen and to learn. Helping their development and providing those key lessons is incredibly important. We know that early childhood educators have throughout the pandemic—as have so many other workers right across the state—had an incredibly challenging 2½ years, and in my contribution I do want to thank each early childhood educator for their passion, for their commitment and for everything that they do to support young people in our state.

We know the Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 is all about strengthening the safety of children in early childhood services and improving oversight and compliance tools for the Victorian regulatory authority. The amendments will lead to improvements in educator practices, qualifications and understandings and improvements in families’ understanding and awareness of the quality of the service, safety practices and risk mitigation.

The bill has two main objectives, those being to implement the outcomes of the review of the national quality framework, the national regulatory scheme for early childhood services, and to enable the child safe standards to be enforced in early childhood services by the existing regulator in an integrated manner. We know that education ministers have agreed nationally that the national quality review changes will commence from July 2023, and the passage of these amendments through the Parliament is time critical, so that brings us to today. We know that our jurisdiction is the host jurisdiction of the national law, and we need to ensure that the bill is passed this year to enable the implementation of the outcomes by mid-2023.

We know that the amendments revolve around safety and quality assurance. Safety measures in family day care are of a particular focus, and we know this is where regulatory measures can be strengthened, with an over-representation of incidents and cancelled licences. This goes to quality, to safety and to being able to ensure, through the biggest of reforms, the $9 billion investment that I mentioned—and if I have the opportunity, I do want to come back to some of those investments a little later in my contribution—that we are continuing to strengthen the sector and continuing to strengthen the experiences and the opportunities that our young people are provided with each and every day. The regulator and the Department of Education and Training will have improved access to information about the types of homes and buildings that family day care operators are working from, which will assist in emergency situations, and the regulator will be able to more rigorously assess the fitness and propriety of the service providers across the sector, including asking those key questions around assessing their knowledge against those national quality standards. This is of course a piece of legislation that brings providers right across the country in sync, making sure that we are working with other jurisdictions, with other states and territories, so that the outcome and the experiences and the opportunities of those being educated each and every day is a safe experience and a good one.

I did mention I wanted to come back to some of those investments. We know that the government values those early years and has made those unprecedented investments in early childhood education. I mentioned those earlier in my contribution. The $5 billion for universal funded three-year-old kinder to be delivered across the state in 2022 also includes a nearly $1.7 billion investment for infrastructure. We know that to be able to scale up in terms of hours and to be able to scale up in terms of delivery infrastructure needs to be provided, and that is exactly what this government is doing. That also creates important economic activity and increased opportunities for employment. Making sure that that infrastructure is running parallel to the investment around scaled-up hours and the provision of three-year-old kinder is fundamentally important. There was the $9 billion that was invested recently to make three- and four-year-old kinder free in participating centres from 2023; to build 50 government-run, low-fee childcare centres in the areas of greatest demand, with many of them to be built next to government schools; and to introduce a year of pre-prep, doubling four-year-old play-based learning hours to 30 a week. The first of the 50 centres will commence from 2025.

We know of course that all of those investments combined have the opportunity to create more than 11 000 new jobs. We are committed to providing more employment opportunities across the state, and this is why an investment of this size and of this scale is so important not only to be able to provide the safety, the quality and the regulatory standards within the sector that are fundamentally important to young people’s lives; also to be able to see those benefits in employment and to be able to see those benefits for those who want to work within early childhood is fundamentally important.

Added to that, the investment around building and infrastructure that is required to run alongside the announcement is fundamentally important and a key part of the legislation. Whether it is free kinder, whether it is free TAFE, whether it is the sick pay guarantee or our huge investments in education right across the state to create the Education State, to build new schools, to upgrade and modernise schools across Victoria; whether it is the massive investments in the Big Build, the Victorian renewable energy target or so much more; or whether it is reforming kinder in a way that has never been done before, this government, the Andrews Labor government, will continue to provide Victorians with the very best of opportunities to ensure that they have every opportunity to be their best individually—their best self. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr KENNEDY (Hawthorn) (11:16): I am glad today to be speaking on the Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. The amendments contained within this bill will make vital changes to improve the safety and quality of the education children receive. I look back just on my own life, and in many ways I regret that I did not have that early childhood education—it was not around in the late 1940s and the early 50s—but I certainly recognised its presence and its value when my own children were growing up and now with my own granddaughter. The opportunities to have awareness of people around you, of giving and taking, of learning even at that very early age of two and three, I have noticed from firsthand observation, have just been fantastic. So I will always be a great fan of early education from personal observation.

I am proud to say today that the Andrews Labor government is embarking on the largest investment in early childhood care in Victorian history. This is because every Victorian child deserves the best start in life. That is why kindergarten programs will be free from 2023. Every Victorian family will have more choice, more flexibility and more left in their hip pockets. Our ambitious reform project does not stop there. We will also establish 50 government-operated childcare centres over the next 10 years. We will do everything we can to end the scourge of childcare blackspots.

This bill accompanies these headline-grabbing changes with important regulatory amendments, principally implementing the outcomes of the five-yearly review of the national quality framework. It will also enable the child safe standards to be enforced in early childhood services by the existing regulator, the Secretary of the Department of Education and Training. These regulatory changes will serve to improve the existing childcare system, improving both the regulations themselves and their enforcement. We are not just carrying out the broader reforms. We are also getting into the regulatory standards and enforcement mechanisms that make these reforms work. This bill is yet another example of this process as we improve the laws that regulate the quality and safety of early childhood services. Consequently, we are ensuring that the oversight and compliance tools for early childhood regulators must be as robust as possible. There are a number of sessional standalone kinders in my electorate, and I am also glad that the government is providing up to $20 000 to assist these kinders with the transition to free kinder.

The most important practical effect of our policy reform is that this gives families the choice as to when a parent goes back to work, and let us be honest, most often it can be the mum. Our childcare reforms mean that when both parents are ready to go back to work they can. Different families will have different needs, and if parents decide to stay home with their young kids, that is of course completely understandable. This policy is about making sure that a family’s choice is based on their needs, not the price of kinder. I have heard from constituents in Hawthorn and family and friends about the impact of this policy. One my own staff told me as soon as this policy was announced that she would have been able to return to work earlier if this policy had been in place a few years ago, and so this becomes really a clear game changer. Every single Victorian family will now be able to enrol their child in free kinder.

Our childcare system was not set up with the intent to fully benefit working families. While we know that more dads are increasingly staying at home with their kids, it is still mothers doing the vast majority of the child care. That is why this bill is ensuring that quality child care is accessible to all, with benefits for all. We have spoken about the impact of this policy on families. Let us also reflect on the impact on our state. When parents stay home longer than they would willingly choose to, our economy misses their skills and experience, costing our economy $1.5 billion per year in lost earnings. Over 26 600 women are taken entirely out of the workforce. This bill makes it easier for some of these women to rejoin the workforce when they are ready. We know there is a gender pay gap. If mums are required to stay at home for longer than they need to or want to, that pay gap only increases.

I myself spent my career previous to sitting in this Parliament in our education system. I know from firsthand experience how important it is to give our youngest the best start to their lives in our education system. It is impossible to overstate how pivotal these years are to our children’s development. That is why the changes contained within this bill are so important, because the health, safety and wellbeing of our children are our absolute priority as a government. Where non-compliance with our education and care standards is identified, the department of education regulator will act.

We already lead the nation in quality of early childhood education. As of 13 June 2022, 90 per cent of Victorian services with a quality rating received an overall rating of meeting national quality standards or better. The national average, in comparison, is 88 per cent. Indeed there are no Victorian services with the lowest rating. This exhibits the consequence of our unequivocal commitment to child care. However, we must not rest on our laurels. It is imperative that we continue to work to ensure the best outcomes for our children and our families. The evidence on this matter has consistently shown that children who attend kindergarten consistently achieve better educational outcomes than those who do not. We know that early brain development is integral to the shaping of the learning, development and health of children. Sustained positive parenting along with high-quality early childhood education is the combination that benefits children the most.

This bill is about fine-tuning the early childhood education system so that it is as good as it possibly can be. It is important to remember throughout this debate that by the time a child turns five around 90 per cent of the child’s brain development has already occurred. I would like to assure the house that this legislation has been guided by the science. For example, the decision to favour two years of kindergarten instead of one is because it has been shown by peer-reviewed research to improve learning outcomes at the same time as improving social behaviours. I know my electorate of Hawthorn contains a large number of young families. Time and again I have heard from them about how they are squeezed by rising cost-of-living pressures. Whether it be a fuel price, grocery price or housing price, many of these families are doing it tough. Indeed there is a misconception that my electorate is purely one of privilege. This could not be more wrong. Many young families stretch their budgets to live in Hawthorn, with its excellent schools, green spaces and services. It is these families doing it tough that will be helped by the broader childcare reform that this bill offers. This bill will form a vital part of our broader reform package that will, I believe, transform our state. Hence I commend the bill to the house.

Mr MAAS (Narre Warren South) (11:26): It too gives me tremendous pleasure, indeed tremendous pride, to rise and speak to the Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. It is really great to follow the member for Hawthorn. As he was giving his speech, I noted he had in the public gallery his grandchild together with his wife. They were just so pertinent, the words that he was saying, knowing that each of those words relate to a very core Labor value and would apply to his granddaughter as well. It was a very poignant moment in the house, may I say.

This government has said that it will deliver for Victorians, and indeed it is delivering for each and every Victorian, beginning right at the very early stages of child development. If I look at my electorate of Narre Warren South, just recently I had the Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep come and we visited one of my local kinders, in Coral Drive, where the government has just made a small investment—some $9000—for some sensory equipment. It is with that tiny investment that we got to see children learning and developing through the playtime that they were having. It was so special. From there, across the road, you can go to one of the local primary schools. Again, there is investment in buildings and developing the sporting facilities so that that further education step and that development can take place. From there, again, you can go over the road to one of our local secondary colleges, and I pick Hampton Park Secondary College as an example. There we are seeing investment in a STEAM centre so that sciences can become first and foremost among our students as they attain adulthood. From there, there is a huge investment in TAFE, including the expansion of courses into free TAFE.

When we talk about the core Labor tenet of education and equity or the core Labor tenet of equity of access to education, what you are seeing is the delivery of these very large scale projects across the suite of education, from very early childhood right through to early adulthood, providing the very, very best start in life for Victorians. We are indeed proudly embarking on this—the largest early childhood investment in our history. It gives, as I said, every Victorian child this tremendous start in life. As part of the government’s landmark reform agenda, we are making kindergarten programs free from 2023 as well as increasing access to quality childhood education and giving Victorian families more choice, more flexibility and more money saved. We are establishing 50 government-operated childcare centres over the decade, ensuring that early childhood education is available in areas with the greatest unmet demand and provides convenient access for working parents as well, and of course we are transitioning four-year-old kinder to pre-prep with 30 hours of learning by 2032, creating the highest quality universal program to give four-year-old kids the opportunity to learn through play. That is all in addition to our ongoing and nation-leading rollout of 15 hours of three-year-old kindergarten for Victorian children by 2029. As I said, it is again with a tremendous sense of pride that I get the opportunity to speak to this bill.

There are two main reasons for the amendments in this bill, and they are, firstly, to implement the outcomes of the five-yearly review of the national quality framework and, secondly, to enable the child safe standards to be enforced in early childhood services by the existing regulator, the Secretary of the Department of Education and Training. The national quality framework amendments will strengthen the safety of children in early childhood services and improve oversight and compliance tools for the regulatory authority. These amendments are likely to lead to improvements in educator practices, qualifications and understandings and improvements in families’ understanding and awareness of service quality safe practices and risk mitigation. The bill will also support early childhood services to comply with child safe standards so that protecting children from harm and abuse is embedded in the everyday practice of leaders, staff and volunteers. This government consulted with the early childhood sector in late in 2021, and they did express a very strong desire to have integrated regulation of the child safe standards to minimise confusion, duplication and uncertainty for their services.

There is of course a really pressing need that the legislation passes this year and that is to enable the implementation of the outcomes of the five-yearly national quality framework review so that that can take place by mid-2023. Further, all state and territory education ministers around the country have agreed that the regulatory changes recommended by the national quality framework review should commence from 1 July 2023, and this is also the strong expectation from stakeholders in the early childhood sector. The national quality framework operates as an applied national law scheme. The national law is enacted by Victoria as the host jurisdiction and is applied in other jurisdictions as their own law or in Western Australia through corresponding legislation. The passage of the bill this year is also critical to ensure the integrated sector regulator provisions for the child safe standards can commence on 1 January 2023 along with the rest of the new enforcement regime for child safe standards too.

The health and wellbeing of children attending early childhood services are of the upmost importance to our government. The vast majority of Victoria’s early childhood services do a great job in providing education and care to children, but when non-compliance is identified the Department of Education and Training and the regulator take action, especially if the safety, health or wellbeing of children is at risk. That is why it is so important that we ensure that the early childhood regulator is well-equipped to uphold quality and safety across services.

The bill itself builds upon our very strong record of supporting the regulator, including ongoing investments to make sure our regulator is well resourced. Victoria does in fact lead the nation in delivering quality early childhood education. As at 30 June 2022, 90 per cent of Victorian services with a quality rating received an overall rating of meeting national quality standard or above, which is a tremendous standard that we have met. This is well above the national average of 88 per cent. Five Victorian services have been rated as excellent and 28 per cent of services have an exceeding national quality standard rating. This is above the national average of 27 per cent. Currently there are no services with the lowest rating.

To conclude my contribution, this bill is about ensuring that Victoria continues to be a nation leader in providing our very youngest Victorians with quality early childhood education that sets them up for life. It is part of the Andrews Labor government’s core commitment to education and of course to delivering for Victorians. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr HALSE (Ringwood) (11:36): It is great to rise to speak to this bill and to follow the member for Narre Warren South and his considered contribution to this debate. This might be the last bill that I speak on in this place, and it is a great bill to speak on. Every opportunity you get to speak on education is a great honour. I know the minister at the table, the Minister for Industry Support and Recovery, is a strong supporter of education throughout our state, whether it is the youngest of our students or the oldest. The point that the member for Narre Warren South mentioned is that we, as the Andrews Labor government, see education not in a siloed manner but as education throughout the course of someone’s life and their life journey. It starts from the very first days, doesn’t it, and it continues, and education never stops. That is what this Andrews Labor government has been about with the magnitude of the reforms that we have implemented over the last four years, and previous to that as well.

You either believe that education is central to a modern society—that access to education is central to providing people with opportunities and making sure that young people have the ability to excel in all of the very different plains that our educators help to educate them in and to equip them in—or you do not. I know that our government has always had education at its very core, because it is about equity, it is about opportunity, it is about equality and it is about making sure that people have that potential to get ahead and can explore that opportunity within their own lives and the lives of their families.

It has been a privilege to be the member for the district of Ringwood and to see firsthand the enormity of the work that this government has done with respect to education, from the youngest right through to adult education. I am often reminded of and often quote a famous passage from Nelson Mandela, who said that education is the greatest weapon we have through which to change the world. Access to education of course does that—it equips people to set upon their own path and to seek their own opportunities. So it is a wonderful thing to be talking on this bill as potentially the last bill that I speak on in this place.

For anyone who has a family—many people in this chamber do have young children; I have got a young son, who is two and a half today, and today he is at his local—

Ms Green: Teddy.

Mr HALSE: Teddy; Edward Alexander. He is at his local early childhood centre. I am always blown away, I must say, by the enormity of the work that is done by our early childhood educators. Before I became a father I was not quite aware of the magnitude and the significance of what it meant to be a parent or of the consistency of care that you provide to your children. Today when our family dropped off our young son, I knew that he would be there for the next 12 hours or so, and they will do a brilliant job of not only caring but also educating my young boy, Teddy. They do it with a great sense of seriousness, commitment and professionalism. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we often talk about hospitals, aged care centres and the disability sector, but our schools and our educational facilities have also been crunched and hit by this pandemic. At one stage, just to be slightly indulgent, half of the staff at my son’s local childhood education centre were furloughed with COVID, and of course you know the amount of viruses and germs that young children pick up in those places and often transfer to parents.

A member interjected.

Mr HALSE: Yes. I must say that is correct. But they continue to work and push through, and they care so diligently for our young ones. They shape their minds, and they give them that education that they need.

All of the research has been very clear, and that is why this government has latched onto it—the Minister for Education and the Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep. The earlier we start that formal process of education the better the results and the outcomes are for those young people. Education does not start at primary school in prep and in year 1, it starts before that, and that is why this government has invested in initiatives like free kinder and is moving towards free pre-prep, as that really important foundational year transitioning into that primary school experience. It is these programs that are difficult to quantify with respect to the outcomes that they will produce, but there is a large body of research in which we have located these educational reforms, which points to the educational journey not being siloed, as I mentioned, but extending beyond those traditional pivots and those roadblocks. So that is what this government is doing. That is why this government has made an intergenerational reform with respect to early childhood education.

Most speakers have gone through the technical aspects of the bill before us. The two main reasons for the amendments that have been brought within this bill—to implement the outcomes of the five-yearly review of the national quality framework and to enable the child safe standards to be enforced in early childhood services by the existing regulator, the Secretary of the Department of Education and Training—have been noted. We know that the national quality framework amendments will strengthen the safety of children in early childhood services and improve oversight and compliance tools for the regulatory authority and that these amendments are likely to lead to improvements in educator practices, qualifications and understandings and improvements in families’ understanding and awareness of service quality, safe practices and risk mitigation. That is a really important component. Every single day if you are a parent—like me this morning and our family—you drop your child or children off to an early childhood education centre, and you might get an update throughout the day. You might get a picture of someone in the sandpit or sometimes you might get a phone call saying that someone has been a bit naughty and has decided to throw the playdough at someone else’s head or something like that.

Mr D O’Brien: You’ve never got that, have you?

Mr HALSE: I have got a few of those recently.

Ms Green: It just sounds like Parliament.

Mr HALSE: Yes. It just sounds like Parliament.

I have had a few of those recently. But we place our faith in our early childhood educators. We need to make sure that the system is as strong as can be but also that we support our early childhood educators and that we acknowledge the work that they do. It is a highly feminised workforce; it is wholly underpaid. There is some organising work to be done in dragging the sector to make sure that they are acknowledged for the work that they do, that they are not left out, and we need more progressive wage regulation in this space.

But this bill before us today is a good one. In the final throes of this parliamentary term, that this government is continuing to implement bills, to speak to education and the importance of public education and to support local families, making sure that we support our education workers, is a fitting tribute to this government.

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (11:46): Like the member for Ringwood, this is one of the last few bills that I might actually get to speak on in this place. I am so glad that the Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 is one of the last few bills that I will get to speak on as a member of this place. Really, early childhood education, child care and support for parents have really been fundamental to my political journey. Being a mum at 19, had I not had access to paid maternity leave because I was a career public servant and a year’s leave without pay, and then access to good-quality child care, I do not think that my journey would have ended up here. It is certainly something that politicised me and motivated me to want to make sure that all women and men have access to that support, but just for our children.

I want to speak to the values from which a bill like this comes. Before the Andrews Labor government took office I was pleased that the then Leader of the Opposition and the then Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the member for Monbulk, made the announcement at Hilltop Park in Mernda that Victoria would be the Education State. In everything that we have done since then, with our reforms to schools but with this early childhood legislation as well, no longer is early childhood considered a community service; it is considered to be a valid form of education. Education should not be considered as beginning at the school gate at the age of five. I think that reforms like this come from a group of people that work collaboratively, think through these things, have a fundamental respect for the people that work in this sector and also have a dedication to the public sector, to the idea of publicly provided early childhood education.

I remember being absolutely incensed during the Howard government when the minister, I think it was Senator Kay Patterson, said in talking about the provision of child care that really it was up to the market. She compared childcare centres to bakeries, saying that if there were three bakeries in a town that could make money, well, if there were three childcare centres that could be okay too. I remember as a mum who then had one child still in primary school, I was so incensed. I thought it showed a lack of understanding of the class structure and the need to have these things, a lack of respect for mothers, women and women’s work but also a lack of respect for our children and the importance of supporting their development early on.

I think that having a close to gender-equal parliamentary party and more than 50 per cent women in our cabinet have really been fundamental to why we bring forward reforms like this. I stand here 40 years after Labor provided the first female minister in this place, Pauline Toner. I am leaving now, after some 20 years in Parliament, and there have been a majority of women MPs in the northern suburbs for the whole time that I have been in and now we have almost a gender-equal parliamentary party. With the candidates we have in the field now it may even be possible that there will be more women than men in the next Labor caucus, and I certainly welcome that. I think that you come from a different place when you have that gender equality belief at your core. I am disappointed that the opposition, rather than wholeheartedly supporting this bill, are merely not opposing it. In the 21stcentury anything to do with early childhood and the reforms that we are making deserve to be supported by the broadest possible political spectrum. I hope that the coalition might rethink that when this bill gets to the upper house and offer their wholehearted support.

I wanted to acknowledge some who I think have been the early pioneers and the giants. I mentioned Pauline Toner, but her successor, Sherryl Garbutt, was I believe the first minister for children in this Parliament during the Bracks government. It was in my electorate, with its massively growing suburbs, where we saw the first—and it is becoming standard—early childhood services co-located with schools in South Morang—Acting Speaker Halfpenny is nodding—the Morang South Primary in my colleague the member for Mill Park’s electorate, and then the Lakes in South Morang in what was the Yan Yean electorate. Now it just absolutely is standard, and then when the Gillard government were in, they adopted that as policy nationwide. It really does make a difference when you have strong women advocating for those things, and a critical mass of us.

I do want to give a shout-out to the member for Euroa. I was deeply moved by her contribution yesterday. She is one of the many neighbouring MPs that I have. I feel really sad that someone as young as her has said that family is the reason why she is not continuing to make a contribution in this place. I absolutely support her call for child care for all MPs and also the staff in this place. As she said, it does not actually have to be in the house, it can be in the precinct. But I do want to commend previous Presiding Officers Languiller and Atkinson, who oversaw the development of the new annexe that does have parenting rooms now. I did have mixed feelings in a way, and I do support what the member for Euroa called for, but I have to say I would not exchange for anything the beautiful times that I have had when my colleagues have given birth to babies—fortunately not in the chamber or in the Parliament, but when they have had them here breastfeeding. I think particularly of the Deputy Premier and the times that I was able to hold Peggy and Cormac here. That was when we used to have dinner breaks, and she had babies here quite late at night. And the member for Northcote and her little girls—the amount of times that I have been able to give them a cuddle or rock them off to sleep or push the pram around. But I actually do think that shows the difference—when you have a large caucus of women, you act to support each other even if the structures were not there in terms of child care. But the time has come, and the member for Euroa is right. We have 18 regional MPs in this place, 15 of whom are women, so it does show that you can be a mum and work here. But it does need greater support, and I hope all parties do that.

I want to also give a shout-out to the Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Partnership for the work that they did in bringing forward one of the many great projects, called the By Five initiative, which was a partnership between the Department of Education and Training and the then Department of Health and Human Services along with support from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. I really think that those five trials were groundbreaking, which led to our policy change for three-year-old kinder. I want to commend the current minister and previous ministers for the rollout of that three-year-old kinder. The National Party will always try and give us a touch up and say that we are city-centric, and I think that rollout of three-year-old kinder showed absolutely that we as a government are values based and do things on need—particularly with places like the Wimmera Southern Mallee partnership—and we are driven by research. It was shown where the areas of greatest social disadvantage were, where children were not hitting their milestones and where there were childcare deserts, and that is where those kindergartens were rolled out.

I am particularly proud that some of our initiatives are around providing child care in childcare deserts. A number of National Party MPs have referred to that, and the member for Ripon. However, I do not recall them ever lobbying. Child care is a federal responsibility. I do not ever recall hearing them in this place lobbying the Morrison government about that, and that is where it should have been. I am so glad that child care and early childhood is firmly on the agenda at the two-day jobs summit now, and I think that we will have some action. It is great to see that we have been working with a coalition government in New South Wales, with Victoria taking leadership on the national stage. I commend this bill to the house.

Ms COUZENS (Geelong) (11:56): I am pleased to rise to contribute to the Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. I want to firstly acknowledge the great work of the Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep. This is really significant policy reform that we have been talking about. I do also want to acknowledge the member for Carrum, who did a lot of early work in early childhood reform. I want to pay tribute to her and the work that she did and of course all of those women, as mentioned by the member for Yan Yean, who have been part of Labor governments over a very long period of time, who have gradually worked towards these sorts of significant reforms. This really is good government policy. I say time and time again that the difference good government policy makes to the lives of people in our community is just so significant.

I also want to acknowledge the early childhood workforce, who as we know have dealt with the pandemic issues over the last couple of years and really stepped up, done the hard yards and looked after our children and kept them safe in those environments. I want to give them a huge shout-out. Many of them in my electorate I have spoken to over the last couple of years, and not only have they been very appreciative of what this government has done in terms of dealing with the pandemic but they have shown great respect for their roles as early childhood workers, and they have not fallen away from that. They have stepped up and done what they needed to do. So I do really appreciate the work that they have done.

Of course women dominate the early childhood workforce. We know that. There are a few men around—there are in my electorate, and I have met with a number of them—but it is predominantly women that are in that workforce. They are women that are providing services to generally women and their children, because it is usually women that take responsibility for getting the kids to kinder or to child care or whatever it might be—that early learning that is so important.

Having been a very young mum, I had the opportunity to send my children to kinder, and sometimes it was a big relief to get them out the door for 2 hours—most times, I have got to say—particularly with my boys. That was a great opportunity I had, but we struggled to pay for that kinder, for the couple of hours a week that they went. I know how difficult it is for many families. It is an affordability issue when you are on a low income and struggling to put food on the table. Those sorts of things have to be considered—whether you can actually afford to do that.

I know for me as a young mum that was one of the things I had to consider, but I am so glad that I did and that my kids did attend kinder, because from talking to early childhood professionals and other parents there is a really significant difference between children that went to kinder and those that did not. I relate it to how when you have your first child they make their developmental process, but when you have your second and third and fourth children, as I did, they develop much more quickly because they are around other children. It is a similar thing when they are going to kinder or to child care or whatever it might be; that interaction and social development is so important.

So this policy reform that we have gone through is absolutely significant for children and for their parents. This is an amazing and exciting opportunity for all children—the three-year-old kinder, four-year-old kinder. Having the 30 hours a week in 2025 will make such a difference to many, many families, particularly around child care. I have been talking to lots of families in my electorate. They are so excited about the reforms that we have made. They talk about ‘Well, I can go to work for 30 hours a week and not have to pay childcare fees’. I mean, that is life-changing for some of these families in my community and I am sure right across the state. I recently had the Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep visit my electorate, and we went to the Geelong West Kindergarten. The parents and teachers were talking about how significant these reforms are for them and the difference that they will make. They are already running three-year-old kinder and seeing the difference that that makes to families and to those children, so they can see this being an enormous benefit for the entire community, particularly those who now have little people that will be able to get great benefit in the coming years. That has been really important, and again it is about good government policy. So I am really proud that the Labor government has actually put these reforms in place, and obviously the reaction is really important.

This is the largest early childhood investment in this state’s history, which will give every Victorian child the best start in life. It also allows for those opportunities to identify issues that those children might have, whether it is learning disabilities, sight or hearing, or family violence. It is about having those expert early childhood workers there who can assist parents, provide that guidance and make referrals to where those children can get the support they need. Providing safe facilities with well-trained staff across our state is really, really important.

As part of this government’s landmark reform agenda we will be making kindergarten programs free from 2023. As I said earlier, this is life-changing for a lot of families in my electorate, and as I mentioned earlier, I know how tough it was for me to get my children through kindergarten, having to pay fees. To not have to do that will be so significant for so many families. We have such a growing population of young families moving into the electorate of Geelong, particularly in the western and eastern suburbs of Geelong, who will rely very heavily on these services. Our population growth across Geelong is really strong. Keeping up with the services is really important. What these reforms will do is ensure that every young child that comes into our electorate or families that are living there now and are planning to have children over the next couple of years will get the absolute benefits of what we are going to be able to provide in the early childhood space.

So this bill is really, really important. Our reforms are really important and really significant. I am really proud of the fact that, as a government which is made up of around 50 per cent women, we have a cabinet with over 50 per cent women. It is really important when you have women sitting around the table and making those decisions, putting the issues on the table. As the member for Yan Yean said earlier, there have been many women on this side in previous Labor governments that have fought hard for these changes. I know we had Fanny Brownbill, who was the member for Geelong back in the—

Mr Edbrooke: We need a statue of her.

Ms COUZENS: Yes, we do need a statue of her—who actually fought hard for issues impacting on women. You know, being able to get prams on buses and trams—those sorts of things might seem small to us now, but they were so significant back in the day, just like early childhood education is so important to our communities right now. I know in my community of Geelong people are really excited about what this is going to bring. It is an important bill. Overall our reforms of early childhood are really, really significant. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr TAYLOR (Bayswater) (12:06): It is a great privilege to rise in support of the Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. Can I just start by acknowledging the fantastic work by the Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep and her team. It is always a big portfolio under a Labor government, but it is certainly made even bigger with our recent reforms. Of course we know about—and I will talk in a bit more detail—some of the huge reforms we are making, starting next year and over the next decade, but there are reforms we made that we announced at the last election around three-year-old kindergarten which are absolutely making a huge difference in communities not just across the Bayswater electorate but right across this state, which is extremely exciting. So a great deal of thanks to the minister and her team and to the department for the work they put into this legislation which will strengthen our early years system and support our early years educators and staff. I do say thank you.

I am very proud to be part of an Andrews Labor government, a government that is absolutely committed to supporting education each and every single day, every single step of the way, because it is the great leveller in society. It is the one way that governments can support people from a young age and of course people of all ages—as our government does through our education system, a very proud education system that gives people the skills they need earlier in life and builds within them life lessons they will take with them for the rest of their lives and obviously into their own careers. We know that that starts with a fantastic education in the early years.

This government has a huge commitment when it comes to our early years space. We know it is supporting the existing four-year-old model that we have got, which will be changing to a 30-hour play-based pre-prep model in 2025. We know that that is going to take an extra 5000 fantastic educators to roll that out, and we will get that job done. We will work with the sector, we will work with stakeholders and we will, as we have done, get the job done. That is going to make a huge difference, a profound difference. Just listening, the member for Geelong talked about—and of course it is much the same in my community and I am sure in all of our communities—how the response has been absolutely next level, for lack of a better phrase.

We know that the childcare system is not getting any cheaper. I know the new federal Labor government is looking at reforms to make that system more equitable so families are not paying up to 25, 30 per cent of their income, so women—the majority are women—are not getting punished for going back to work and to encourage them, if they want to, to make that choice to get back into work. Our new play-based 30-hour pre-prep program will help them to do exactly that. It will take the cost-of-living burden, that pressure, off them and put some money back into their pocket; we know at the moment that is absolute gold.

We know that that work has already started. We will start to roll that out in 2025, but we have already started that work with three-year-old kindergarten right now across the entire state—5 hours of subsidised kindergarten. We will get to the free part next year, but we know that that is going to roll out up to 15 hours of access to three-year-old kindergarten across the entire state between now and 2029. We are well on the way to hiring, recruiting and getting skilled-up 6000 early years educators, and I obviously thank the entire sector for the fantastic work that they are doing to that end. But that is also another great way that this Andrews Labor government is taking a lot of pressure off families who otherwise may have had to rely on the childcare sector—no disrespect; I do not mean any ill will towards the childcare sector. They do incredible work as well. I take my cap off to anyone in the early years space. I often visit a lot of kindergartens, childcare centres and primary schools, and I am so glad I am only there for 30 to 60 minutes because I am like, ‘Great, I’m off. See you later’. The level of patience, the level of care, commitment and dedication—I know that all members in this place who get across schools and early years facilities in their electorate, whenever they go, talk to the educators and hear about their work and the commitment that they have to show each and every single day they turn up and the attention that they have to pay to young people because, you never know, three-year-olds can quickly get away from you. So they are just doing incredible work. We know that our commitments in the three-year-old kindergarten space are absolutely game changing, and we will move that up to 15 hours by 2029 and do that hard work and that heavy lifting with recruiting those extra 6000 early years educators that we know we will need.

We know that our government’s commitment in the early years space also includes making kindergarten, three- and four-year-old, free next year. I must say I think we have done some fantastic things, but when you go out to your community and talk to families, particularly with all of those cost-of-living pressures I have been discussing throughout my contribution today, and you say to them the simple words, ‘We’re making kinder free’, so many families I am talking to—understand that in some settings it is $2000, for others it is up to $2500 per child every single year that they are in a kindergarten program—are absolutely relieved. That is a big part of our commitment to kindergarten: making sure we make it even more accessible to families and making sure that that money is put to other uses in the family budget, particularly at a truly difficult time for many in our community. So that is a huge thing that our government is getting on with, and I am very, very proud of the work of the Andrews Labor government, the minister, the entire team and department and of course our educators who are supporting that great work.

We know that that does not stop in the early years space. Our government are reforming, improving and making our education system more accessible not just for those in the early years but also through our primary and secondary government schools. We have got a number of things we have done in low-fee non-gov and Catholic schools, and that is also critically important work. When we talk about making education more accessible, a great example was in the last budget, where we announced $1.6 billion for the disability inclusion package. That is not something you hear every day. I know members on this side are absolutely talking it up, and I am sure others are as well, even though they did not implement it, because it is obviously difficult when you are not in government. Indeed I know we should all be very proud of this. This is making sure kids with difficulties who obviously need that extra care and support are absolutely getting that. So this is doubling the amount of support to students right across our government schools.

In the eastern area where I am that is exactly what we are doing. I sent out some correspondence, and I know the Department of Education and Training did so earlier this year, and the response from principals on this program was fantastic. Some of the stories I hear about some of the students who are getting extra support, perhaps even some students who were not able to get some support who are now receiving it, the difference it will make to them and the pressure it will take off families, making sure that they can get an even more equitable education in our system, are just absolutely incredible. The tutor learning initiative is another great example. I was out at Wattleview Primary the other week in Ferntree Gully, and the principal there is absolutely raving about the tutor learning initiative. In fact it is not just the principal there, it is principals right across the area that I represent, and it has been fantastic to see. Of course we know it has been a tricky couple of years. Making sure that students are able to catch up and get that extra bit of support whilst they are at school has made the world of difference to many. I want to really thank the staff and the educators who are involved in running that program and the schools for implementing it.

Then once you leave primary and secondary, there is our TAFE sector—so critically important. We are supporting people across all ages but of course younger people primarily, who are accessing those free TAFE programs. 115 000 people have gone out and studied a free TAFE course, and many of them are now working and have got very good paying jobs in those priority sectors, whether it is across the healthcare, construction, horticulture or cybersecurity sectors. That has just been a fantastic and well-received initiative. It is making sure that people of all ages can get the skills they need for the jobs they want and the jobs of today and tomorrow. So I am really, really proud of the investment we are making.

Locally we have delivered over $70 million in school upgrades right across the Bayswater electorate. We are delivering a new kinder in Boronia as well. We have made a number of announcements around some smaller upgrades. Look, this legislation goes to strengthening our early years system. It goes to backing our educators and making sure that Victoria continues to well and truly be the Education State not just in name but absolutely each and every single day in practice. I commend this bill to the house.

Ms WARD (Eltham) (12:16): I also rise to support this legislation. It is great to come after my incredible colleague, my hardworking colleague, and it is great to see his passion for early learning. It is something that we on this side of the chamber have an immense drive to achieve—world excellence in early childhood years and in early childhood learning and education. We know that as a state we will become better, stronger, smarter and more inclusive when we have got wonderful environments for our children to learn in, and we know that this learning starts from day one. This government bringing in free education through three- and four-year-old kinder is just a phenomenal game changer.

In talking on this bill, I firstly do want to thank everybody in the early childhood sector for the incredible amount of work that they have done over the last three years. Trying to work with small children during a pandemic would have to be one of the most challenging jobs that Victorian and Australian educators, and in fact those around the world, would have had to face. Working out how to create programs for children remotely, doing things online as well as helping children adjust as they came back into their kinder or childcare community would have been an incredible amount of work. I thank them so much for all that they have done—for their resilience, for their perseverance, for their dedication to these children and for doing everything they can to, this year, bring their children to a developmental stage that we would expect them to be at at their age.

This bill is another example of the Andrews government getting on and getting things done. It is a bill that will implement the recommendations of the 2019 national quality framework review. We are introducing changes that will bring about new policies, new procedures and risk assessments that will ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of our young children—whether in care or in education—are maintained and improved and enhanced. We know that investment in and support for early childhood is vital. We know how important it is for our kids to get that education. We know that it is important from a social aspect. It is also important from an economic aspect, because the more prepared our kids are for school and the more that they are encouraged and supported in their learning the better they are going to be all through their schooling, and they will also have those fundamental platforms in place for when they are adults. So much of what we do in those early years influences how you are, who you are and what you are as an adult. Universal access to up to 30 hours of pre-prep foundation years education is massive. It is an incredible change for kids but also for those families who want to access those early years learning spaces but find the cost prohibitive.

We have opened up opportunities for cohorts of people who may not have had these opportunities otherwise. This is a fundamental right, and it is something that on this side of the house we fully understand: that access to child care, access to education and access to learning through play should be available for every Victorian child regardless of their background and regardless of the income that their parents earn. With this we are creating up to 5000 jobs—real jobs, jobs that are respected, jobs that matter—and that will create up to $2500 of savings for families. We know that the cost of living is a challenge for families at the moment—in fact for many people—and we know that this is hurting families, and this creating access for three- and four-year-old kinder is one way that we can help. Our kids should not miss out on their educational needs because wages are not keeping pace with inflation.

Acting Speaker, with your indulgence, I do want to give a shout-out to Eltham South kinder, the kinder that my kids went to a number of years ago. It is a wonderful bush kinder. The opportunities that those educators create are phenomenal. I really want to shout out to Sue, Jenni, Michelle and Kerry, the women who helped our girls go through kinder and who helped develop and support them at the start of their learning journey.

I also want to give a shout-out to La Trobe Uni child care, who are incredible educators and who take their role so seriously. It is wonderful to see that as a community we are really starting to respect the hard work that early years educators do—the hard work, the education and the training—that is required to help young children learn. I know that anyone that is a parent understands how hard it is to not only wrangle three and four years or even younger children but to help them learn, to help them develop attention, to help them understand learning through play, to help them understand sharing and to help them understand social engagement and all of those activities that help them be good, rounded humans. It is hard work. It is such hard work. They deserve such congratulation and respect for the work that they do.

I also want to talk about Diamond Hills Preschool. We have recently invested $2.9 million in redeveloping that kinder. It is a fabulous kinder—a community kinder—with an amazing amount of volunteers who do so much work to look after the kinder, to look after staff and to create an environment that is wonderful for kids to learn in. It was great to go up there a couple of months ago with the member for Bundoora to celebrate this important investment.

We also recently last week had a visit by the Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, who came to Panorama Heights Preschool, where we have funded a beautiful play space but also a magnificent fort and climbing area. I will share with you that the minister and I did get a bit of a dance going. When you have got a bunch of three- and four-year-olds bouncing around shaking their instruments, you have got to join in. It was a great start to the morning, and it certainly warmed us up. I have got to say the minister was able to bust out a few moves. She did pretty well.

What was also really beautiful about this kinder visit was their acknowledgement of country. We had a collection of young people standing around talking about their respect for the earth and their respect for the sky and using the motions that come with it. We know that moving as they learn actually helps kids learn. We know that our early years educators through all of their research have learned that and are now teaching kids by using that as one of their tools. There was a beautiful understanding of the importance of Indigenous culture and of Indigenous culture to our own story as Victorians for those of us who were there at Panorama Heights and for those of us learning, walking and living on Wurundjeri lands. Our children are those who are able to come through the education system and help the wider community understand the importance of so many things and so many social aspects, including respect and acknowledgement of our First Nations peoples.

We have also invested really strongly in Eltham South kinder, Briar Hill kinder, Eltham Woods, Greenhills, Yandell, Apollo Parkways Preschool and Lower Plenty preschool. We have also invested in the Eltham co-op, which is a fantastic childcare centre that offers three- and four-year-old kinder. It is a beautiful space that has been created. I want to give a quick shout-out to the level crossing removal authority, which is delivering car parking quite close to this childcare centre, for the work it has done with the childcare centre in enhancing their space as well.

Before I finish, I do want to talk about the importance of our maternal and child health nurses. They are wonderful people, and through this legislation we will be safeguarding delivery of maternal and child health services in Victoria, requiring providers of maternal and child health nursing services to employ or engage nurses only if they have met a prescribed prerequisite. Our maternal and child health nurses are so important. These are the people that you go to every other week with your baby and talk through your baby’s experiences and talk through what is happening with you as a mum. It is also the place where if you are experiencing challenges, particularly with postnatal depression, it will be picked up. It is where women are introduced to their first mothers group, which is also such an incredibly important support for young mums. I can only imagine how difficult the last three years have been for our maternal and child health nurses and how hard they have worked—how incredibly challenging their workplace would have been during a pandemic to be looking after small babies, to be nurturing mothers and to be helping families have the best environment that they can for their newborns. I do want to congratulate the government and the minister for the work that they have done on this bill, and I wholeheartedly support it.

Ms HALL (Footscray) (12:26): I am really pleased to be able to make a contribution on the Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, one of the important last pieces of legislation that we deal with in this place in the 59th Parliament. It demonstrates this government’s commitment to an Education State for all ages and stages of life. I would like to begin my contribution by noting that next week, on 7 September, it is Early Childhood Educators Day. I want to thank all of the early childhood educators in Victoria, and in particular, with indulgence, the early childhood educators who I see every day at my son Ned’s early learning centre. Yesterday was little Neddy’s fourth birthday, and it was so lovely to receive messages from the centre throughout the day of the children celebrating Ned’s birthday and learning through an occasion like that. They took the opportunity to make a cake for Ned, and I really appreciated receiving those updates while I was here in Parliament. To Simone, the manager at the centre, and Caitlin and Michael, who are the main educators in Ned’s room, they do a terrific job to educate the children. They are doing three-year-old kinder.

Of course the Victorian government has led reform in three-year-old kinder. It is really remarkable to see the way the children learn, from Book Week, which was last week, seeing the kids in their terrific costumes and learning about Australian authors and books and having book-themed food, and also through music and play. Michael, one of Ned’s educators, is a guitarist and brings in his guitar and sings with the kids. They are really just exceptional educators, so happy Early Childhood Educators Day to all those amazing educators out there. I do think that jurisdictions around the world that invest in early childhood education—in public access, and well-funded access—are really markers of progressive and civil societies.

We acknowledge that early childhood education is absolutely crucial to the development of our young people of course but also to the economy. We know that the reforms that we have introduced here in Victoria will be transformative for women re-entering the workforce—predominantly women who take time off as primary carers. To be introducing this huge, landmark reform agenda, making kindergarten programs free from 2023, will just be a game changer for our workforce productivity and also for those young minds which will benefit from 30 hours of a pre-prep year, which is just such an exciting change to see happening.

In my community of Footscray, I feel like the government is really absolutely innovating in this area. We have co-located early childhood education with Footscray City Primary School, and across the road of course are Footscray High School and Victoria University, which also has a kindergarten. What we are doing through the Footscray learning precinct is providing the opportunity for local children to progress from long day care and three-year-old kinder all the way through to university in the same block in Footscray. So there is really exciting reform happening. It is really smart reform, and I am thrilled that it is happening in my electorate of Footscray.

I am also really excited that we are establishing 50 government-operated childcare centres as part of our reform agenda. We know that there are areas where there is not sufficient access to early learning. I am very excited that people in those communities where there are childcare droughts, as they have been called, will have access to early childhood centres co-located with schools, and they will be government funded, because public education is so crucial—high-quality public education is the great leveller. So we are investing in public education at the early childhood level, funded by government. It is expensive. I heard the member for Geelong speaking about her experience. It needs to be affordable and accessible for there to be equity of access. Of course the minister has been a great champion of that in her role. I would like to also acknowledge the hard work of the minister and also the member for Carrum, who did a huge amount of work on early childhood reform in her role when she was the parliamentary secretary.

We know that transitioning to pre-prep with 30 hours of learning will create a high-quality universal program, providing four-year-olds the opportunities to learn through play. This is in addition to our ongoing nation-leading rollout of 15 hours of three-year-old kinder for Victorian children by 2029. These reforms happening in Victoria are really nation leading, but it is very exciting that we now have a Labor federal government, which also believes in the importance of equity of access to early childhood education. Minister Rishworth is doing a terrific job. I think there was resounding support for early childhood reform and access to child care at the last federal election. They know how important it is. They know how important our educators are. The member for Ringwood rightfully acknowledged in his contribution that our educators in early childhood are not paid well enough. There is a huge amount of work to happen to support people to choose a career in early childhood. It is so important. It is such important work.

The member for Eltham spoke about the importance of these reforms with respect to our maternal and child health nurses. They are exceptionally highly qualified nurses. I think to become a maternal and child health nurse you need to have a qualification in nursing but you also need to be a midwife, which takes many, many years at university. I have been speaking to my neighbour, who is currently a midwife and wants to transition into becoming a maternal and child health nurse. You never forget your midwife and you never forget your maternal and child health nurse. They are very important people, not just for children but for parents as well, who rely so much on their wealth of knowledge and their ability to support parents and babies as they establish a new life. Often when it is your first baby and all of a sudden you have a small child to look after, it is a huge change in your life, and they are there almost weekly for the first couple of months to support you in that transition, identifying issues such as postnatal depression but also of course potential health issues that the child may have. They do crucial work, and these reforms that we are speaking on today will provide those maternal and child health nurses with the support they need in terms of the national quality framework amendments. I commend the bill to the house.

Ms D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park—Minister for Energy, Minister for Environment and Climate Action, Minister for Solar Homes) (12:36): I move:

That debate be adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.