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

I would like to start by giving the departmental perspective to this claim that somehow the government is not funding the early childhood sector. I'd like to put this issue to bed. In response to a journalist's inquiry around the government not funding the sector to the level it was funded before we went into COVID-19, the department said:

The Department cannot validate the claim the Government is spending $400 million less this quarter. Under the Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package, the sector is expected to receive $1.6 billion over the coming three months from taxpayer subsidies. This plan complements more than $1 billion the sector is expected to receive through our new JobKeeper payment. Under the pre-existing system, the sector was estimated to receive $1.3 billion if current revenues and subsidies had continued.

That is from the department. It completely puts to bed this idea that we are underfunding the sector at the moment. The $1.6 billion plus $1 billion is $2.6 billion.

See this speech in context