Thursday, 1 September 2022

Ministers statements: early childhood education

Ms STITT (Western Metropolitan—Minister for Workplace Safety, Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep) (12:22): This morning I was very pleased to visit Alpha Early Learning Centre in Richmond to talk to staff about our Best Start, Best Life reforms for early childhood education. We know that our $9 billion investment will be a game changer for kids and families. Providing two years of free kinder means that even more children will attend early learning. Families will not need to find up to $2500 each year from their household budgets.

But these reforms are not only good for kids and families; now we know they are good for the economy. New independent analysis from Deloitte shows that our Best Start, Best Life reforms alone will boost Victoria’s workforce by up to 30 000 full-time positions and increase the state’s real gross state product by between $0.9 billion and $3.8 billion in 2032–33. Once fully operational, our kinder reforms alongside the commonwealth government’s childcare subsidy reforms will deliver an increase of $13.9 billion to $29.3 billion for the first 10 years and create over 46 500 jobs.

And it is women who really stand to benefit. With 94 per cent of primary carers being women, these reforms will overwhelmingly benefit female-dominated sectors like education, health services and accommodation, not to mention early childhood education and care—sectors that are all currently facing skills shortages and are female dominated. Right now lack of access to child care takes almost 26 500 women entirely out of the workforce in Victoria and costs the economy $1.5 billion per year in lost earnings alone. These are women who have wanted to work more but have been prevented from doing so because the system does not meet their needs. I am proud to be part of a Labor government that is delivering these nation-leading reforms that will benefit generations to come.