Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Can I thank the shadow minister for her contribution, and can I say that we on this side of the House also believe that we should invest in preschool, that we should invest in early childhood education. But we want to make sure that the return on that investment is one that will lead to our children improving their educational opportunities, improving their educational results and going on to make a significant contribution to this nation.

The Australian government currently, in 2018-19, is funding preschool to the tune of $870 million. It's worth remembering, of course, when we talk about this investment, that the Commonwealth is funding a contribution to states and territories, as they are primarily responsible for preschool education. Next year alone, the government will provide more than $440 million to states and territories, benefiting almost 350,000 young Australians—an incredibly important contribution. This funding, along with contributions from state and territory governments, ensures that all children can participate in 15 hours a week of quality preschool in the year before they start school. Since 2013—so since the coalition government came into office—we have made $2.8 billion available to state and territory governments through a series of five national partnerships to support universal access to preschool. As such, funding arrangements for preschool from 2020 are a matter for all state and territory governments and will be discussed accordingly.

The shadow minister referred to enrolment and attendance and said that this will be something that we on this side of the debate will bring up—and it is, because it is incredibly important. If we are to put this investment in, we want to make sure that it gets the best returns that it possibly can—especially when we are dealing with our children. That is why we want to make sure that what we do is not solely focused on enrolment. It is very, very important that this is the case. In 2017, preschool attendance nationally was only 70 per cent. Crucially, and more importantly, for Indigenous Australians this figure was 59 per cent; for those with socioeconomic disadvantage, the figure was 65 per cent. As I am sure the shadow minister is aware, when it comes to investment in this area, if we can lift attendance for those from low socioeconomic backgrounds, for Indigenous Australians and for those from rural and remote Australia, we can get significant benefit.

For the information of members, I want to detail some of the data on this when it comes to South Australia. In South Australia attendance is only 57 per cent across the board at the moment; when it comes to Indigenous Australians in South Australia, it is only 38 per cent; and when it comes to vulnerable and disadvantaged children, it is only 50 per cent. That is why this government wants to talk to the state and territory governments about attendance. It is incredibly important. We want to make sure that, when we are investing, we are going to get the best outcomes that we possibly can. It is important that we invest, but it is also important that we invest to get the rights outcomes. We want to make sure that that investment does that.

The shadow minister talked about people who come and support various investments in education. I could go back and say that for the Building the Education Revolution I am sure there were people that said, 'Yes, this looks like it is a good investment,' but then $6 billion was wasted through that. When it came to providing computers in schools, once again, there was a raft of endorsements.

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