Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The right to education is a basic human right. The earlier that education can start, the better and more effective it is. It is important that especially our most vulnerable young people are engaged at an early age with formal education and continue to engage throughout their childhood and teenage years. It is critical, regardless of the circumstances a child is born into, that the opportunity for education is universal. That is why I am very pleased to ask the minister for education a question about the universal access partnership, which will provide continued funding for critical early childhood education through the funding of preschools.

This government is committed to supporting families and supporting young Australians to get the best start in life through early education by making it accessible and flexible. It is committed to helping families, and that is demonstrated through its other recent announcement on compulsory vaccinations, on the 'no jab, no pay, no play' provision ending the conscientious objector exemption on children's vaccinations.

We have also funded a pilot scheme for Australians who find accessing affordable child care difficult. On 3 May this year, the Australian government announced an $840 million commitment to continue the funding of preschool education across the country through the National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education. I am pleased to see that more than $2.8 billion has now been provided to states and territories through these national partnership agreements.

Disappointingly, the previous government did not provide funding post-2014, and that is why we are pleased that this funding under the national partnership agreement guarantees federal support into 2016 and 2017, reflecting our commitment to providing flexible, accessible and affordable options for families and children. The funding will be offered on a similar term to those of the existing national partnership agreement. The Productivity Commission recommended that this funding be extended, and I am pleased to have been able to take that recommendation on board within my electorate, but more particularly our government has too.

Importantly, and for the first time, included in the funding is adjustment to increases in the consumer price index so that families and preschools themselves do not lose out. Linking the funding to CPI will result in an extra $30 million over 2016-17. Enrolments in preschools have grown over the years, but there is still more work to be done to support both enrolment and attendance, especially for vulnerable, disadvantaged and Indigenous children. This funding will be used in part to help boost those numbers of young people attending and engaging in early childhood education.

In Western Australia, this funding represents a commitment of $13.4 million in 2014-15 and a doubling of that commitment in 2015-16 to $31.2 million. I want families in Hasluck to have access to early childhood education through a government preschool or a stand-alone preschool, or through long day care. This funding gives certainty to families and also to preschool providers. This funding will create the opportunity for more children to attend preschool, to learn, to socialise with their peers and to help them create the routine foundation for their formal education. The funding will help to improve enrolments as well as to help boost attendance.

I am pleased that nearly 50 preschool providers in Hasluck, all of whom are working to give young people in the suburbs in my electorate the best possible start in life, can now be safe in the knowledge that they will be funded for at least a further two years. I am pleased that the families in Hasluck will continue to have access to 600 hours of preschool per year, ordinarily delivered as 15 hours per week following this government's commitment. This announcement reflects the government's support for Australian families to high-quality, early childhood education for young Australians and its adherence to the basic principle of the right to education, accessible to all people.

My question to the minister is: can you please explain why, when the previous government had failed to commit funding post-2014 to this very important program that gives states and territories the ability to provide universal access to preschool education, you thought and acted on this matter and why this government thinks that it is critical for the youngest people in our country to have this opportunity?

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