Another broken promise – universal preschool left to States
03-June-2009
The Rudd Government’s election promise of “universal access” to preschool was in tatters following the revelation in Senate estimates that the Rudd Government would rely on the various State and Territory Governments to ensure parents could afford preschool fees, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Childcare Sophie Mirabella said.
“The States have presided over the appalling situation we have now – it’s akin to putting Dracula in charge of the bloodbank. The blame game is clearly alive and well. The Rudd Government made grandiose promises before the last election and now they’re saying it’ll be up to the States to determine how much parents can afford to pay,” Mrs Mirabella said.
“Departmental staff could not answer the simple question of how parents would go about seeking access to services if they couldn’t afford to pay the fees.”
“While the cost of preschool in some states and territories is relatively low, the fees in states like NSW and Queensland are prohibitively high. Even low cost preschool will place it out of reach of those children from families unable to pay anything – those children who often need such early education the most.”
Mrs Mirabella said the Rudd Government was clearly backing away from its promise of government-funded universal access to preschool.
“We have the public servants now saying that the funding which has been allocated will be used to “support” rather than “deliver” the policy of universal access. That is just not good enough and is clearly a backflip on an important election promise.”
Mrs Mirabella said that Labor’s Plan for Early Childhood in the 2007 election promised that,
“Federal Labor will ensure that all four years olds have access to early learning. All four years olds will be eligible to receive 15 hours of Government-funded early learning programs per week, for a minimum of 40 weeks per year……….As one of the most significant additions to Australia’s education system in more than a generation, a year of universal preschool will take time to implement.
There can be no other interpretation of this promise other than that Labor promised 15 hours of free preschool for all four year olds. Labor’s policy stated that it would be “Government-funded” and that it was “universal preschool”.
However, the website of the Government’s Office of Early Childhood Education and Childcare makes it quite clear that this promise of free preschool for all four year olds is a complete sham. The Q&A entitled, Universal Access to Early Childhood Education [document has been removed or moved]. It asks:
“Does Universal access mean that early childhood education is free?
No. The Australian and state and territory governments have committed to work together to reduce cost as a barrier to accessing quality early childhood education. It will be up to states and territories and providers to determine what cost, if any, will be passed on to parents for 15 hours of early childhood education. Many states and territories already provide free or very low cost early childhood education.”
“Labor’s promise has clearly been broken – and now even the public servants are fumbling and failing to explain how universal access will actually work. If they don’t know – how will parents? ,” Mrs Mirabella said.