Press conference - Gowrie NSW Malabar Early Education and Care

MINISTER JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Ok, thank you. Well, thanks very much, everybody, for coming along. Firstly, can I start by mentioning our thoughts today with the family and the friends of Kumanjayi Little Baby, and to recognise the unfathomable grief that Kumanjayi's family and friends, and the whole community of Alice Springs and the surrounding town camps, are feeling today. For anybody who is a parent of little children, the grief that they are experiencing hits home in a very, very personal way. Can I also thank the team at Gowrie ‑ I thank you, Nicole, and I thank the whole team ‑ for allowing us to visit here at Malabar today to make what I think is a very important announcement. A very important part of building a better, and a fairer and a safer early education and care system. Can I thank, along with my ministerial colleague Jess Walsh, Georgie Dent and Sam Page for being with us to be part of this announcement today. 

Early education and care is an essential service for more than a million families across the country and it's a critical part of preparing young children to be ready for school. And, today, more young people, more children attend early education and care than ever before. There's about 80,000 more children in our child care centres in early education and care today than when we were elected four years ago. And there are some new statistics out today that show the number of children in preschool is up by about another 2.6 per cent on what it was in 2024. So, that is all good news. 

But I think all Australians, all Australian parents, will remember the horrific and sickening news, the revelations that came out of Victoria and New South Wales last year about safety in our child care centres. And I said at the time that not enough had been done to keep our kids safe. And that's true for Liberal governments and for Labor governments. We brought the governments across the country together to take action, and since then a lot of action has happened. We've banned the use of personal mobile phones in our centres. We're trialling CCTV. We're rolling out mandatory safety training to all of the workers who work in our early education and care system. And today we're taking the next potential step. Today, we're announcing that we're going to work with the states and the territories, and all of the people who work to make this system work, to look at establishing an Early Education and Care Commission. A commission that will help to drive real long‑term reform, to build on the safety reforms that we've already implemented, and help to make sure that the system works better than it does today. We know that there are some places where there is oversupply and some where there is undersupply. There are some places where there might be five centres in one street that are half‑full, and then there are other streets and other suburbs where parents can't find a place for their children. And establishing a commission like this can help to fix that, can help to address that. 

We want to build a system that is affordable and accessible, and establishing a commission, we think, will help us to do that. But in order to get that right, we've got to work with the states and the territories and all of the people who work in the system, and that's why this will be listed on the agenda at the next meeting of education ministers when we meet in a couple of months' time. 

I might hand over to Jess to say a few words and then we'll hand over to Georgie and Sam.

SENATOR DR JESS WALSH, MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND MINISTER FOR YOUTH: Thanks so much, Jason. And it's really wonderful to be here at this absolutely beautiful Gowrie service today. Seeing children get the benefits of high‑quality early childhood education and care in action right around us today. The quality of early childhood education and care does give children a great start in life, and it helps families thrive. That's why we are committed to building a universal early childhood education and care system in this country, because we want more children to have access to the benefits of great‑quality early learning. 

Our announcement today ‑ that we will start consulting on a National Early Education and Care Commission ‑ is one step on that journey towards universal early education and care, where more children, more families can get the benefits of great‑quality early learning that helps them grow and learn and develop, and helps families thrive. 

We are already putting the building blocks of that system in place right now, today. We are strengthening the system with our strong safety reforms. We are guaranteeing three days of Child Care Subsidy for every child in the country who needs it, so they can get the benefit of quality early learning. And we're investing a billion dollars in our Building Early Education Fund to build more quality early learning services around the country in our outer suburbs, in our regions, so more children can get the benefits of quality early learning. 

This announcement today that we're consulting on a commission is the next step in that process. A commission could help us build a stronger system. A commission could help guide the pathway forward to universal early childhood education and care, where more children get the benefit of quality early education and care to help them grow and help them thrive. A commission has been advocated for by leaders in the sector for some time, and we're really proud to be joined today by Georgie Dent from The Parenthood and Sam Page from Early Childhood Australia. And I'll turn over now to Georgie. 

GEORGIE DENT: Thank you so much, Minister Walsh and Minister Clare. At The Parenthood, we represent 85,000 parents and carers around Australia, and I can guarantee you that none of those parents wake up in the morning and think about which part of which government, and what level of which government, is responsible for which part of the early childhood education and care system. What parents are waking up thinking about is, is there a place available in their community that is affordable, that is high quality, that they can rely upon? And those are the pillars of universal early childhood education and care. And at The Parenthood, we believe that a commission is the bridge that can help us realise that vision for all Australians. 

We commend the Commonwealth Government for taking this step. We believe this commission will be greeted enthusiastically by so many in the sector ‑ by educators, by parents, by everyone who is invested in children having access to high‑quality early education and care services. We are here at Gowrie this morning, and being able to have the opportunity to see the children here, and the benefits that they get, this is not something that should be left to chance. We should have this sort of service available to all children, regardless of their postcode, and we believe that the commission will help get us there. We have been advocating for this because we believe that, without coordination and without stewardship, we will have a situation where half the country ‑ not half the country, ‑ we will have a situation where some families can't access services and in other areas there are too many services and services end up being closed. 

This is a pivotal moment. It has been described as a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity for reform of early childhood education and care. And at The Parenthood, we have long argued that there is no more meaningful reform that we could pursue than building universal access to high‑quality early childhood education and care that is delivered by a professionally paid and qualified workforce. 

SAM PAGE: I'm having some kind of hay fever reaction ‑ I'm not crying! Hello, everyone. I'm Sam Page. I'm from Early Childhood Australia. We represent the interests of young children but we work very closely with the early childhood profession and the early childhood sector more broadly. And we've had 50 years of growth in the early childhood sector, but we have been seeing for some time that we're heading to a situation where, under a free‑market approach, we've got oversupply in some areas and undersupply in other areas, and in some cases oversupply for some age groups and undersupply for other age groups in the same region. We really need to address that. And we have supported calls for a commission, a system steward, to address that, to better plan for services where they're needed and make sure that every child does have access to high‑quality early childhood education and care where they need it, when they need it, and at a rate that's affordable for their family. 

And that doesn't mean that all services will look the same in different parts of Australia. We can have a system that is universal but not uniform, that has flexibility, different service models that serve families who have different needs, different hours of the day. That is baked into the system that we have, but we do need to make sure that we don't have children who are missing out altogether, and in other parts of the country we have services unexpectedly closing because we've got an oversupply. 

Nobody benefits from oversupply. We don't necessarily lose the poorest‑quality services. We lose the services that can't afford to hold on. So, we really do want a more vantaged approach to the way services are delivered, and we welcome this announcement today. And I know that there is strong support for it across the early childhood sector. Thank you. 

WALSH: Anyone with questions? 

REPORTER:  Minister, a couple of questions. So, this commission that you are just consulting on, is this in next week's Budget? How are you gonna pay for this? 

CLARE: So, there will be reference to this in the Budget next week, that will begin the consultation work with states and territories. And that really kicked off yesterday, when we got in contact with our state and territory counterparts to let them know that we want to put this on the agenda when education ministers meet on 17 July. We got very strong, positive feedback from the states and from the territories. 

The starting point for this is the body that we already have in ACECQA. It's a body that's got about 150 employees, it's got a budget of about $18 million a year. One of the options in front of us is not to create a separate, second entity, but to restructure or to reform, to transform the work that ACECQA does today. They're already responsible for the new Early Childhood Education and Care Register that's been stood up in the last two months. They're responsible for the Quality and Safety Standards. They're responsible for the qualifications that workers in the system have. There is an option here for us to consider about how we reform and build on what ACECQA already does. And that's one of the things that ministers will consider in consultation with the sector. 

REPORTER: And what's the dollar amount in next week's Budget? 

CLARE: The dollar, I guess your question is, "How much will this cost?" That will be subject to consultation with the states and the territories as we do the detailed design work on this commission. The Budget Papers next week will outline what I am saying right now ‑ that this consultation work has now begun. 

REPORTER: And how long until this Government can afford universal child care? 

CLARE: This question gives me an opportunity to say what I said on ABC Breakfast this morning, and that is universal early education and care is not free, it's not free for every family. It's not necessarily $10 a week or $20 a week. What the Productivity Commission's report said ‑ that we released a couple of years ago, and this commission concept comes out of that report ‑ what that report says is that universal early education and care, in a nutshell, is three days a week. It's every family being able to afford and being able to access early education and care three days a week. And it sets out a number of things that we need to do to make that a reality for Australian families. Number one ‑ it said we need to pay our early education and care workers more. And that's what we've done with a 15 per cent pay rise. And we're reaping the dividends of that already, with more people applying to become early educators, and vacancy rates dropping significantly. 

Number two ‑ it said that we need to build more centres where they don't exist at the moment. That's what the billion‑dollar fund is about. But that's what this commission can help us with as well. Because if we're going to make sure that early education and care is available where every parent needs it, it's not just the Government building more centres in primary schools or in communities, it's a managed system that helps to make sure centres are where they're needed. 

And the Productivity Commission also said that we needed to get rid of something called the Activity Test, that stopped kids from some of the poorest families in the country ‑ kids where their parents don't have a job, or aren't in education ‑ from getting access to the subsidy. And what that report said is that it's those kids who need the benefits of early education the most, that get the most out of it, that help to make sure that they're prepared to start school. And they're basically cut out of the system at the moment. We've fixed that too. 

So, number one ‑ the Productivity Commission said, pay people more. Number two ‑ they said, build where there are no centres at the moment. Number three ‑ help to make sure the most disadvantaged kids don't get cut out of the system. And then number four ‑ it said, think about long‑term reform. Establish a commission to help drive it. That's what we're talking about today. 

REPORTER: Can you put a ball park cost on that and how you're gonna pay for it? 

CLARE: I'm not gonna put a ball park cost on it. What I'm saying is that we're beginning consultation work on this right now, and that one of the models we should consider ‑ and that we will consider ‑ is the reform of the existing ACECQA that does some of this work but not all of it. 

DARCY FITZGERALD: First one, Jason ‑ so, you've talked already about reforming ACECQA. Are you going to give them more teeth and make them more accountable? As journalists, dealing with ACECQA, it's been incredibly difficult to get anything of substance. You know, are the reforms going to give them teeth? 

CLARE: Well, Darcy, all of this is about building a stronger system, a better system, a fairer system, a safer system. And what we're talking about here is having a commission, a national commission, that works with states, that works with territories, works with existing regulators, works with the sector to build a better system. Now, the details of how all of that comes together is the subject of the consultation work that begins right now. And we want to work with states and territories on this over the next six months. I want something with detail that comes before education ministers when we meet early next year. 

CLARE: Darcy, all of this work is done in partnership with the states and territories. The states have regulators as well, whose responsibility it is to enforce the standards that we set as a nation. And I have been very encouraged by the work that state regulators have taken in the last few months, particularly in New South Wales and particularly in Victoria. They've demonstrated their commitment to make sure that we do what is necessary to keep our children safe. So, all of this has to be done in partnership. 

FITZGERALD: Sorry, last one from me. So, this is for Jason or Jess ‑ whoever wants to answer it. Just for Australian children aged zero to five who are Government‑subsidised care, I've heard from many families that the current Child Care Subsidy model does not work for them and they're calling for more flexibility and choice for their care. How is $16 billion of CCS spending good value for all Australian families? Why is long day care, family day care more worthy of CCS funding than other forms of child care? 

CLARE: Well, we're all in support of choice. That's why this is the Government that established paid parental leave, which extends to six months from 1 July. We support choice. That's why we've got a $1 billion Building Early Education Fund, to help to build centres where they're needed, where they don't exist at the moment. And this is the next potential step. This is about making sure that centres and services are where parents need them. Sorry, go, Sam. 

PAGE: Hi, Darcy. Sorry, I just can't help myself. But what we know is that, in the first 12 months, most parents are using paid parental leave and not putting their child into early childhood education and care. When we take a figure like 50 per cent from birth to five, we're including those children who nobody's interested in bringing very young babies into early childhood education and care if they don't need to be there. But by two we have 30 per cent and by four we have 90 per cent of children accessing early childhood education and care. So, I really think we should be careful about using the 50 per cent figure because it's misleading. You actually need to look at what is the pattern of participation from birth to school age. Thank you. 

DENT: Hi, Darcy. I think it's also relevant to say that we know 82 per cent of working families in Australia use some form of formal early childhood education and care. And we know that early childhood education and care is able to not just facilitate parents being able to participate in the paid work that their families need, but we also know that when early childhood education and care is high‑quality, we know that want benefits for children are immense in terms of their health, social, and educational outcomes. And so I think we have to look at that and say, if we've got 1.4 million children who are using this system, if that's what 82 per cent of working families are relying on, I think it is critically important that every dollar that is spent is going towards meeting the needs of children and families. And I actually think that's part of why this commission is so important, because we do spend $16 billion a year on the Child Care Subsidy, parents spend about $6 billion a year in addition to that on out‑of‑pocket fees. I think that it is in the best interests of taxpayers, of parents, of children, of educators to ensure that the money we are investing in early childhood education and care is actually moving the dial that matters the most. And that is ‑ are we improving outcomes for children and are we enabling parents to participate in the paid work that their families need? And I think that having a commission that is established in consultation with the states and territories is actually critical to ensuring that we are making the smartest and most efficient investments that we can in early childhood education and care. 

KRISHANI DHANJI: Thank you. I've got two questions. The first on the early education and care ‑ the Productivity Commission, in its 2024 report, also [INDISTINCT] to be in full view of the Child Care Standards. Would you put forward…? Would the education commission be able to do that [INDISTINCT]? 

CLARE: Krishani, we are working through that report step by step. I outlined some of the things that we've implemented in that report today. Already, we've bitten off a big chunk of that work, but there's more work to do. The next step is the work we will do on this commission. But like a lot of things in government, we work through this one step at a time. 

DHANJI: Just another issue. Tertiary polling came out this week that one in four humanities students will take a century to pay back their debt. You’ve said multiple times that dropping graduates has been a failure. You passed legislation a little bit earlier this year, but it won’t, under the legislation, consider student tuition in its remit. When will the JRG be fixed? Is there a timeline? 

CLARE: Well, I've said that JRG is a failure. If the purpose of the former government was to get people to not study the things that they are passionate about, that they love, and that they're interested in, then it didn't work. People choose the subjects that they want to study based on what their interests are. And I've also said that it is expensive and complex to fix. The ATEC, the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, has got the ability now to be able to look at the costs across the whole system. And I said that this is unfinished business and that there is more work to do, but I won't set a timeline on that today. 

REPORTER: Minister, we're seeing the return of the children from... families from Syria this afternoon to Australia. How soon do you expect them to start school and how do you think that's going to go? 

CLARE: Well, I think it will be different for each child, and that will be based upon the work that the Australian Federal Police do. The Australian Federal Police Commissioner outlined yesterday the work that they will be doing with these families. Firstly, Krissy Barrett mentioned that some of the women returning will be arrested when they return. Others will be the subject of further investigation by the Australian Federal Police. And that for the children of these women, that they will need to participate in countering violent extremism work that is led by the Australian Federal Police. And I've got trust and faith in the work that the Federal Police do. These women have been under investigation now for I think the best part of 10 years. This is not their first rodeo. The Federal Police have done this before. They had to do this sort of work when the former Liberal government allowed 40 former ISIS fighters into the country, and so I've got trust and faith in the Federal Police to do their job to keep Australians safe. 

REPORTER: And in terms of the community reaction, there's been a lot of disquiet, including the Yazidi community. What do you say to those who were allegedly held as slaves by potentially some of these? 

CLARE: Well, I would say that ISIS was, and is, an evil organisation that did some of the most hideous things imaginable, and that no‑one has any sympathy for anybody who actively participated or supported what ISIS did. I'd also say this ‑ that children don't get to pick who their parents are. And these children have seen things that no child should ever have to see. And the trauma that they have experienced will be with them for some time. And that is why the work that the Federal Police will do, and need to do, is so important. 

REPORTER: So, a Syrian official has told the ABC that the delay of two weeks was due to the Australian Government saying they had to do procedures. Do you know what those procedures were? 

CLARE: I don't have any details on that. 

REPORTER: Were you informed, or any officials informed in the Government, about what was needed to be done? 

CLARE: I'm the Education Minister, not the Home Affairs Minister. 

REPORTER: But in terms of getting ready for these children to come, was there any talk about that? 

CLARE: I don't have any detail on that. 

REPORTER: Have you discussed the matter with your state counterparts in Victoria and New South Wales, the education ministers? 

CLARE: No, I have not. These are the sort of conversations that are happening, I would expect, between the Australian Federal Police and state police, between security agencies and state police, but also between officials in the relevant government departments at a state and federal level. 

REPORTER: Do you expect to talk minister‑to‑minister to your state counterparts? 

CLARE: I would expect that those conversations will happen between Home Affairs ministers and police ministers. 

REPORTER: We've heard that the international learning platform, Canvas, has been compromised. Have you talked to any of the educational institutions? Are you recommending anything regarding that? 

CLARE: I've sought advice from my department. I'll have more to say when I receive that advice. 

REPORTER: What's just your initial thoughts about the compromise for the learning platforms? 

CLARE: Obviously very concerned. It is extremely concerning. That's why I sought advice from my department. 

FITZGERALD: So, for Jason again. With Labor sitting by the sidelines, who are you backing for the by‑election this week and do you think the Coalition is in trouble? 

CLARE: Well, Darcy, I'm not backing anyone in particular. That's a decision for the people of Farrer to make. But I would say this ‑ this is a safe Liberal seat. If the Liberals lose this seat, it would be catastrophic. You know, think about it. The Liberal Party have already lost the seats of Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, and Robert Menzies to the Teals. If they now lose seats in regional Australia as well, you know, I think the Environment Minister might have to add the Liberal Party to the endangered species list. You know, this is serious. If the Liberal Party are losing seats in the city and in the bush to the Teals and to One Nation, then they are in serious trouble. 

FITZGERALD: Yep. Thank you. 

CLARE: Thanks, guys.