Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Minister for Education. How does the coalition's approach to improving quality childcare outcomes improve upon the former government's Early Years Quality Fund? What steps has the minister taken to repair the legacy of the former government?

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bonner for his question. I look forward to coming to his electorate in Brisbane to open the Mother Duck childcare centre in Wynnum next Monday. Last week I had the pleasure of announcing the largest ever government investment in the professional development of the long day care educators of this country—$200 million allocated to helping long day care services to meet the cost of upskilling to comply with new quality framework rules, to train educators, to backfill, to buy resources and to support our centres and our educators who work so hard.

Where did this money come from, you might ask? This money came from Labor's Early Years Quality Fund.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is right; the Early Years Quality Fund—the fund that was not about the early years, was not about quality but was in fact a slush fund used for union recruitment, something that was shut down after our independent inquiry found that that was exactly what it was. So I am pleased to report on our centres, particularly those in rural and regional areas and particularly when it comes to employing an early childhood teachers. The cost of that is high and we need to train our educators. We need to upskill our educators so that they can do the job they do with children, with the next generation. This is a fund that will help the entire sector, not just Labor's chosen few. Remember the Early Years Quality Fund—15 per cent: just one in six of every single educator across the country could ever have benefited.

This fund will help every single educator in long day care. It will not be first in, first served. It will not be signed off on in a flurry of secret deals with the union behind closed doors before it is announced just before the election. It will be open and transparent. In fact, fact sheets and details are on the website—something the previous minister could never do. She could never say what she was doing. She could never communicate with the Australian people. Most importantly, it will add to the quality of teaching, the quality of child care and the quality of early learning. Centres will be able to choose how they use the money. They will not be told what to do. They will be able to use it in a way that can best provide for their educators and for families and their children.

So I am very proud to be announcing this fund today. Applications open from next Monday, the 19th. I look forward, as the CEO of Mother Duck said, to greatly improving skills, to helping with the implementation of the quality framework and to positive outcomes for children.