Thursday, 18 May 2023

Motions

Early childhood education

Debate resumed on motion of Ingrid Stitt:

That this house recognises that the Andrews Labor government’s ambitious overhaul of early childhood education and care, with a massive $9 billion investment over the next decade, will give kids the very best start in life and will make early education fairer for all Victorian families.

And David Davis’s amendment:

That ‘families.’ be omitted and replaced with ‘families, but has failed to fully fund the required associated capital works leaving a black hole in funding.’.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (14:58): I am pleased to speak on the motion in relation to early childhood education and care. I have got to get my head out of the wonders of water and into early childhood.

A member interjected.

Ryan BATCHELOR: That is right. There is a lot of crossover between the two subjects, of course: intricate detail, total uncertainty and a lot of play.

The Andrews government’s commitment to early education and care is unparalleled in this nation. Both between jurisdictions and across time, no-one has a more ambitious early childhood education and care agenda than the Andrews Labor government. Our Best Start, Best Life reforms are investing $9 billion over 10 years to fundamentally transform the Victorian system of early education and care for our three- and four-year-olds. It is not like we were coming off a low base. We were coming off the base of having one of the best early education and care systems in the country before this latest round of reforms. All we are doing here in Victoria is taking our early years to the next level.

Free kinder for all three- and four-year-olds: three-year-olds to receive 15 hours of kinder by 2029, four-year-olds transitioning to a universal system of pre-prep offering 30 hours a week of play-based learning over the next decade. It is a phenomenal change that is ahead of us. That will be accompanied and supported by the government stepping up to support the provision of early learning, particularly in those parts of the state where existing provision is insufficient, through the creation of 50 new government-owned affordable early learning centres. Our plan is to get them up and running and off the ground by 2028, and it is happening right now. Work is already happening. This program is already well underway. The support that we are providing to families to help them with the costs of sending their kids to kinder will see this year 140,000 Victorian children go to kinder for free, saving these Victorian families up to $2500. These are significant reforms that are investing in our children – investing in the next generation of Victorians ‍– but also and importantly they are helping Victorian families with the cost-of-living pressures that they face on a day-to-day basis. It is a really remarkable reform agenda, an unprecedented and an unparalleled reform agenda, and one that I am very proud to support today.

One of the reasons I am really proud to be supporting this government’s drive in the early years is because of what we know about the young brain. The scientific and medical research and understanding of the human brain has deepened a lot in recent years. We have learned a lot about what the brain does in those early years of life. That research has revealed the extraordinary potential for growth and adaptability that exists within each of us but particularly within our children. It is through those experiences in the early years that we can help shape that potential and set up a foundation for a lifetime of learning and success.

By the age of three a child’s brain has already formed billions of connections, or synapses, between neurons, and this process of synaptogenesis is driven by the experiences and interactions that children have with their environment. The process of brain development amongst our children is driven by the stimulating environments that they are placed in, and it is those environments which then help drive that process in and of itself. The science of the brain is really spectacular. This neuroplasticity allows the brain to learn new things, to enhance cognition and to enhance its capabilities. It allows the developing brain to recover from trauma and strengthen after loss. It is this process of brain development that demonstrates to us the underlying importance of having these sorts of universal programs, because it is during this critical period that the brain is most responsive to its external stimuli, allowing the groundwork for future learning and development. High-quality early learning, high-quality preschool or kindergarten experiences, provide the optimal environment for fostering that kind of brain development and neuroplasticity growth, and that can achieve a whole range of cognitive, social and emotional growth. So high-quality early learning centres, high-quality early education and care, play an absolutely pivotal role in preparing children for success in their later years of schooling but also for later in their life.

International research has consistently shown that children who engage in high-quality preschool programs demonstrate across their lives better school performance, higher graduation rates and increasing later potential. A study by the Brookings Institution found that those who were enrolled in high-quality universal preschool programs demonstrated an enormous benefit in later year educational outcomes. Those children were 3 per cent more likely to finish school, 8.5 per cent more likely to attend university – or college as it is known in the United States – and 39 per cent more likely to finish their tertiary education if they had been enrolled in those high-quality early learning programs. And they were 32 per cent, so one-third, less likely to be living in poverty later in life if they had had the benefit of high-quality early learning.

So what the international evidence is telling us and what the scientific evidence is telling us is that if we have a decision to make about when and where we should be investing in our education system and in our children, providing greater access to high-quality play-based early education and care is exactly the sort of thing that we should be doing. These high-quality preschool programs and kindergarten programs can help foster social and emotional confidence, particularly when there is a balance between structured learning experiences and those opportunities for exploration and play. It is the way that our early childhood educators are able to – quite miraculously, I think – construct a learning environment that has both the delivery of structured content and an environment that is fostered and encompassed by play that allows children to be learning constantly and in ways that we can only admire significantly.

And the other thing I think it does, for any of us who have seen young children in these environments, is that it helps create a sense of curiosity and fosters a love of finding out things about their world that stays with these kids for the rest of their lives. This sort of high-quality education and care delivered by highly trained professionals, whether they be university educated or whether they be diploma-trained staff, has a lasting impact on our young kids.

Tom McIntosh: Kids love it.

Ryan BATCHELOR: They do. They absolutely love it. The other thing we are seeing as part of this program with the government’s initiative to create 50 new government funded and run early education centres, particularly with the plan to co-locate them on school sites, is that they are acknowledging some of the difficulties that many parents have in dealing with the morning juggle. By having a system of co-located centres on school sites we can assist some parents – not all – with what we all know is the dreaded double drop-off.

Matthew Bach: Nightmare.

Ryan BATCHELOR: It is an absolute nightmare, and I am sure all parents both within this chamber and beyond will have had the experience of those morning runs and those afternoon pick-ups trying to shuttle between centres to drop off the kids. The other reason I think that this is such an important reform, not just for Victoria but also for our nation, is because I think we can see at the Commonwealth level that hopefully now we have a partner in future reform.

Tom McIntosh: Finally.

Ryan BATCHELOR: Finally, after nearly a decade of disinterest, a decade of nothingness, we have got a Prime Minister and we have got a federal government that care about the early years. There are significant reforms to our childcare subsidy that are coming into effect from 1 July this year – initiated by the federal Labor government – that are going to deliver both fee relief to families and also support ongoing reform that we hope and trust will better support the significant reform agenda that we in Victoria are progressing. And for just once in the last decade we will finally have a federal government that is pulling in the same direction as the state government in relation to the early years. We have a federal partner to help us deliver and expand this agenda.

The other thing we can do – and as a Victorian I take a lot of pride in being better than every other state in the country – is that we can tell them exactly how well it is going here and invite them to join our reform agenda, invite them to walk, I would say alongside us, but probably a little bit behind us, as we seek to get all of our kids up, our three- and four-year-olds, into early learning, into kinder, into pre-prep. We can really and truly revolutionise the early years here in Australia, because I think our nation is on the cusp of a massive transformation in the early years. Victoria is leading that agenda, and we think that is a really important reform which should have our full backing.

I just want to end my contribution by making reference to one of the outstanding kinders that I visited recently in the Southern Metropolitan Region, the St Kilda and Balaclava community kindergarten, which offers kinder programs run by qualified, degree-educated staff, supported by diploma-educated workers, to three- and four-year-olds – a great centre on Nelson Street in Balaclava. It has been there and doing this work since 1911. Upon walking through the not very grand front gate, I might say, you enter into a kind of educational wonderland and you see the looks on the faces of the kids as they are learning, you hear the sounds of their play echoing off the play equipment and underneath the beautiful trees that sit in the garden of this magnificent facility and you can see the benefits that sustained investment over time in developing a high-quality learning environment for young people delivers. It was a pleasure that I had recently to visit this particular kindergarten, and I have visited many more in the various parts of the Southern Metropolitan Region in the last few months, talking about the benefits of the state Labor government’s investment in the early years. The message we get from everyone we speak to, whether it be educators, whether it be parents or whether it be the great many researchers in this field, is that what this government is doing is both nation leading and the very best thing we can be doing for our youngest Victorians, setting them up and setting our state up for the best and brightest future.

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (15:13): I am going to enjoy putting the context of my Eastern Victoria Region to this motion moved by Ms Watt. I note the government has been enjoying pumping up its own tyres over the last little while in the house, but I would just like to remind the government that things are not all rosy in Eastern Victoria Region, and I will outline some of the statistics in the context in which I say that. We know that early childhood learning and education are absolutely crucial for later success in life, for progressing through school and for, potentially and hopefully, achieving year 12 status and going on to a great job, whether it be in the trades, whether it be in a profession or whether it be in small business or elsewhere. We need kinder centres and we need centre-based care; it is absolutely vital for our regions – that nurturing, that socialisation that comes out, that confidence that our kinder teachers and childcare workforce provide, that friendship and that guidance. The very key issues around early literacy and numeracy are something that I am very passionate about. You see, as you go through educating secondary school students, those that sometimes have not had the benefit of either a stable home life or of progressing well through kinder and through junior primary school; you see the way they struggle and their frustrations. And we know – there have been many, many tests and reports out that suggest – that we need that very important early start to life.

Matthew Bach: Yesterday.

Melina BATH: That is right. One of the things that we see is the importance too of a focus on regional Victoria. That is my patch, and that is where I am saying the government, after the Labor Party being in government for 20 out of 24 years, has dropped the ball. There is a very important statistical report that comes out frequently, and it is the Australian Early Development Census. It looks at quantifiable measures of children as they progress in developmental stages. It is AEDC for short, the Australian Early Development Census. It looks at early development in a couple of domains. It looks at physical health and assesses a child on physical health, social competence and emotional wellbeing or emotional challenges. Language and cognitive skills is another domain by which this organisation assesses children, and communication skills. It also then does a matrix to assess different regions – different LGAs – in terms of two or more of those vulnerabilities, so it looks at the whole child, it looks at the region and then it says, how are these kids benchmarked both across Victoria and then nationwide? And in the statistics, unfortunately, with the Andrews government and previous Labor governments being in for 20 out of 24 years, we see that the area of Bass Coast is both higher than the Victorian average and higher than nationwide in two or more of those vulnerabilities. It looks at East Gippsland, and we can see that East Gippsland is higher in two or more of those domain vulnerabilities. Children are not achieving a benchmark nationwide level as they should, and indeed unfortunately – and there is no joy in saying this – significantly higher than state and nationwide is the Latrobe Valley for its progression of children through those domains in early childhood development.

That is one. Another one that we see that ties very much into this lagging behind of just those few examples that I have provided is the Mitchell Institute from Victoria University only recently in a report in 2022 examined access to child care. So we are seeing kids that are lower than they should be in vulnerabilities – or higher vulnerabilities, lower than they should be in status – and then looking at the cross link to the matrix of childcare availability. The Mitchell Institute looked at 50,000 neighbourhoods across the country – so it is nationwide again – and it said:

Our analysis shows that when it comes to childcare access …

and this is a quote from their report –

where you live matters.

And there are childcare deserts. The report, which is labelled ‘Deserts and Oases: How Accessible is Childcare in Australia?’, describes childcare deserts as an area where there are more than three children per childcare place – so supply is not meeting demand. Again, there is no joy in this but these are the facts: Latrobe Valley is certainly part of that desert landscape, as is regional and remote Gippsland. The minister has promised – we have seen this promise, it is regularly spruiked – that we are going to have childcare centres, but the only one I can read in the list around the Latrobe Valley is one for Glengarry–Yallourn, and I will explain that in a minute, by 2028. So we have an issue, we have a problem, and I will go into a constituent example in a moment. Besides that, it is a funny point that the government would say ‘Glengarry–Yallourn’ – these are not sister towns. They are in fact probably a good 20 minutes away from each other, so the government needs to decide whether it is building one in Glengarry to the east or in Yallourn to the west. I am sure the people of those towns would actually argue that both are warranted, but we are in a desert.

One of the other things that you see very often – and it is a vicious cycle – is the lack of child care in these deserts. We can look to places like Omeo and Orbost. You will not get professional people coming into those remote regions – fantastic regions, beautiful places – because of the lack of a childcare centre or a place for their young child. They may be a professional. They may be trying to work at the hospital as a nurse or a registrar or a doctor, or as a dentist or whatever. They are looking for and needing those childcare places, but they are not there, so then there is that vicious cycle of lacking not only childcare centres and places for children but also lacking professionals to go there. There is no incentive for them to go there because they are so concerned about how they will keep up their job, their professionality, if they cannot actually access child care. Quite often you want, potentially, couples to come in who could both be professional and supply that workforce. So this is an issue that confronts many Victorian towns, and councils are often scrambling in that regard as well.

The other point I will talk about, and my constituent raises it, is in relation to the association between childcare accessibility and female workforce. I will just share with you that a fantastic constituent – I have raised her story in the past in this place – put her child’s name down when it was born in Latrobe Valley at six different childcare places. She is still struggling, absolutely struggling, to get that child into care. It is now a year old, and she said that she could get in there in another couple of years. So this lady, a fantastic mum, wants to get back into the workforce, and funnily enough she is actually working in the childcare environment, wants to go and be part of the solution, but her child cannot find child care. That is a frustration I have raised with the minister, and the minister is still to come back to me with an example of how she is going to solve that problem.

The other thing that also frustrates many people in my electorate is the end of the fantastic 30 years of operation of Moe Central Child Care and Kindergarten Centre. It was privately owned, and they had the highest standards. Indeed over 30 years we have had children going to that centre, growing up and then sending their children to that centre. But my constituents Gary and Jan Mason were incredibly frustrated that they ended up not being able to staff it. They wanted to go to great lengths to provide staffing to keep that centre open. It had somewhere around 30 places, so that is not insignificant in Moe, providing a service. It was well respected, but they could not actually access the workforce. They wanted to have conversations with government, and they felt that government had shut – do not be surprised – the private sector out of good communications and feeding into the solution. They wanted to have those conversations and just felt that there was nowhere to go.

The other thing that they were most concerned about is that they had a high number of children in out-of-home care or in child protection. They were well respected, very stable, and they had a lot of children coming in over decades in out-of-home care and child protection. They were really bereft. Part of their sadness in relation to having to shut their doors last year was the fact that they were really concerned about where these vulnerable children would go. To my mind we are not seeing that all is rosy. I understand the government has put their position, but if all was honey and syrup I would not be reading about these childcare deserts in Gippsland, the lack of services and the fact that our fantastic young people have got vulnerabilities and are over-represented in those cases.

So with those few words, I will make my conclusion there. When the government talks about how fantastic the record is, after 20 years out of 24 there are some very vulnerable children out there, women who want to get back into the workforce and a list as long as your arm of young people waiting for child care.

Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (15:25): I am honoured to speak – in fact I am delighted to speak – on this motion from Sheena Watt. It is a wonderful motion recognising the important support the Andrews Labor government is providing for our future generations. The Andrews Labor government is committed to giving Australian families a fair go, and the government has announced a staggering $9 billion commitment over 10 years to completely reform Victoria’s early childhood sector, the most significant change to the early childhood sector in a generation. The Best Start, Best Life reform includes free kinder programs for all three- and four-year-old children at participating services from the start of 2023; four-year-old kindergarten, transitioning to pre-prep, over the next decade, becoming a universal 30-hour-a-week program, with play-based learning available to every four-year-old child in Victoria; and establishing 50 new government-owned and affordable early learning centres, which we have just heard about the need for from Ms Bath. These centres will be built in locations across Victoria that have the greatest need and will make it easier for families to access education and care, including, in my outer regional electorate, in Portland, where child care has been assessed as in high demand. These initiatives build on the three-year-old kinder reform program which is currently underway. The government is investing almost $5 billion over the decade, delivering 15 hours per week of three-year-old kindergarten for every child by 2029.

The story of ‘Why early childhood?’ begins with the research evidence on social determinants of health: the higher your education, the higher your income; the higher your income, the healthier you are. Early learning is generally accepted to be from zero to five years of age. The human brain is fully formed at birth and is pretty much set for life after the first five to eight years. During the first five years the brain establishes wiring and connection pathways that are largely there for life. It is accepted now that if this wiring is not well established in those crucial first five years or indeed if it is damaged in some way, the chance to reach full potential is reduced.

Herein lies the evidence base behind the Andrews government’s investment in early years education. These strategies have been established in the UK and other parts of Europe for decades, and we know that they produce results. There is no doubt that the price and cost-of-living issues are a barrier to early childhood development. Again the Andrews government is leading the nation in this investment in the future of the people of our state. The strategy includes a number of actions and investments and a transition over time.

Quite simply, the Labor government is making kindergarten free. Up to 140,000 children started three- ‍and four-year-old kinder this year with no fees. This is estimated to have saved families up to $2500 in fees per child per year. This program alone is a commitment of $270 million, and I might say I remember the struggle to pay kinder fees when our children attended Warrnambool East kinder. Importantly, families will not be out of pocket and will not have to claim savings back. Free kinder will make sure that no child misses out and will save families thousands. This strategy addresses early childhood development, early learning, cost of living, the need for child care, access to employment and family convenience all in one policy. This is an example of sophisticated policy that solves multiple problems in one go, and it takes hard work, solid research and deep consultation to come up with and implement this kind of strategy.

I want to give a shout-out to early learning professionals in Western Victoria. Established in 2003, ECKA, the Eureka Community Kindergarten Association Inc., is a not-for-profit organisation approved by the Victorian Department of Education to deliver quality, accessible early years education. Jo Geurts is the CEO of ECKA and has provided me with a comment on the Andrews government’s early childhood strategy. She said that ECKA is extremely supportive of free kinder – that it was fantastic during COVID and a complete surprise when it was reintroduced this year and beyond. She said it was so welcomed and well received by families – that she can only assume some families would have missed out due to the stress on household budgets, as kindergarten is not compulsory. She said it is great that kindergarten is accessible for all, especially as we know brain development from birth to five to eight years old is so critically important and makes such a difference, and that the extra two years for children to spend at kinder is a significant chance for their future and will set children up well for their future years in school. And finally she went on to say that she could not wait to see the data come out in years to come and measure the positive change that this reform can deliver.

A further benefit of this strategy is that it creates new jobs. This is a sector that primarily employs women. Boosting opportunities for women in the workforce will also enable more working mums to return to work, providing a system that works for all. It is estimated that the current lack of access to child care has prevented some 26,000 women from engaging in the workforce.

Over the next decade four-year-old kindergarten will transition to pre-prep – a universal 30-hour-a-week program of play-based learning. It will be a high-quality program that gives four-year-old children greater opportunities to socialise and learn through play. Pre-prep will be rolled out progressively starting in regional Victoria. From 2025 pre-prep will commence in Ararat rural city, Hindmarsh shire, Northern Grampians shire and Yarriambiack shire – all of these sites are in the western region of Victoria – and other areas of regional Victoria. The rollout will also give early access in 2026 to Aboriginal children and vulnerable children no matter where they live. Disadvantaged children whose parents hold a Commonwealth concession card will also have access in 2028.

Child care has not been working for working families. The fees are high, and many families have to weigh up the financial cost of going back to work. I remember when I returned to work after my first child was born; after paying childcare fees, I had $3 left per week.

A member: I had 6 cents.

Jacinta ERMACORA: Did you? It just proved I was trying to keep my career going, because I certainly was not earning anything.

In some communities there is a shortage of places. That is why the Labor government is establishing 50 government-owned affordable childcare centres in areas with the greatest unmet demand. And I really appreciate the comments made by Ms Bath earlier about regional unmet demand, and I can confirm that the Andrews Labor government is addressing that. Where possible the centres will be co-located with schools – to avoid the dreaded double drop-off – and alongside hospitals, TAFEs and major employers to create convenient access for working parents. And there is confirmation of a further seven sites at Creswick–Clunes, Golden Plains, Maryborough, Melton South, Portarlington, Portland and Rockbank–Mount Cottrell.

Making education fairer and accessible to all and starting it from a young age to give our children the very best start in life is a game changer. This will benefit families with the cost of living, will alleviate pressure, particularly for working mums, and will encourage jobs in what we certainly know is a growth sector. These reforms are being rolled out over the next decade to establish an early childhood sector which will lead the nation and bring us in line with best practice around the world, and I am very proud to support this motion.

Lee TARLAMIS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:36): I move:

That debate on this motion be adjourned until the next day of meeting.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned until next day of meeting.