Press conference - Kings Park, Victoria

ALICE JORDAN‑BAIRD: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Early Learning Victoria Garrong here in Kings Park. I'm really honoured to represent this wonderful community here in Melbourne's western suburbs, Kings Park and further west, in Parliament House in Canberra. We’re here in Gorton. We're one of the fastest growing, youngest communities in the entire country. And with more young families choosing to build a western suburbs home, and with so many young families moving into an area like ours, early education is really incredibly important, which is why I'm so excited to be here today with a number of special guests behind me, which I'll go through today. So, we have the Honourable Jason Clare, Federal Minister for Education, Senator the Honourable Jess Walsh, Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education, as well as our Victorian State Minister for Children, the Honourable Lizzie Blandthorn. And I'll just throw over to the Minister for a few words now. Thank you. 

LIZZIE BLANDTHORN: Thanks very much, Alice. And welcome everyone to Early Learning Victoria's Garrong site here at Kings Park next to the beautiful Kings Park Primary School. It is great to have you here at one of our 50 Early Learning Victoria centres. This is one of 14 centres that has opened this year which brings our total Early Learning Victoria centres so far to 18. We're really excited that these Early Learning Victoria centres are being built and opened right across our state bringing low cost, close to home child care and education to our littlest learners in the places that it's needed most. And it's absolutely a recognition of the work that families do, but the support that families need in being able to provide that best start in life for their littlest people. But also for it to be close to home, affordable, and as far as is possible close to the other services that families use. We know that families don't operate in silos so it's really critical that we build our services co‑located and together. So here in Kings Park at Garrong we have a beautiful new Early Learning Victoria centre which can provide places for up to 130 children per day in our pre‑three and four‑year‑old kinder programs, but which can also have spaces for multipurpose activities, things like play groups, things like toy libraries, mothers' groups, dads' groups. There were spaces here for those activities to happen as well. There are also spaces for maternal child health facilities to come in and run services for the families that are here attending the Early Learning Victoria centre. So, it's really great to be here at Garrong to celebrate the opening of one of 14 this year, as I said, 18 in total, and 50 that we're building across the State. In just the last couple of weeks, as part of our Best Start, Best Life reforms, just yesterday we announced $6.2 million dollars in upgrades to kinders right across our state, and inclusion grants which will provide for equipment to help some of our littlest learners, those particularly with special needs, adjusting to their local communities. And we have also reached the milestone of more than 100 kindergartens on school site. So our commitment to ensuring that littlest learners get the best start in life, that their families are supported in providing that best possible beginning in their education journey, is rolling out right across our State and it is great to be here with Jason and Jess and Alice today to celebrate that, and to also really welcome the Commonwealth partnership with us on that journey on our nation leading Best Start, Best Life reforms. It is great to have the Commonwealth here, and to talk further to that I'll invite the Federal Minister to say a few words. 

SENATOR DR JESS WALSH, MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND MINISTER FOR YOUTH: Thanks so much, Lizzie, and thanks, Alice, for having us here at Kings Park Primary School at Garrong, Early Learning Victoria. This is part of a historic announcement. The Albanese Labor Government is partnering with the Victorian Government on a $170 million dollar commitment to build 11 early learning services across the country. We'll be creating 1,100 places for children and our services will be located in the outer suburbs, in regional areas, in regional cities, including Geelong as well. We want to make sure that every child has the opportunity to attend a quality early learning service. We know early learning is great for children, we know it's great for parents. We're really focused in our billion dollar Building Early Education Fund on co‑locating early learning services with schools, just like this, because we know it's great for parents, it gives them the one stop drop‑off, and we know it's great for children too. Early education helps children get ready for school, more so when it's co‑located with school and they can smoothly transition to it. So, we're very proud to be partnering with Victoria on this $170 million dollar commitment as part of our billion dollar Building Early Education Fund, because we believe that every child deserves access to quality early learning, no matter their postcode and no matter what their parents do. I'll just hand over to the Education Minister, Jason Clare. 

JASON CLARE: Thanks, Jess. We're doing a lot of work to improve safety in our early education system across the country, and tomorrow we'll be in Adelaide with other Education Ministers working on the next steps in reform in that area. But we're also doing a mountain of work to improve access to early education care for mums and dads and children right across the country, and that's what this is fundamentally all about. There are some parts of the country where there are lots of early education and care centres, and then there are other places where there's not, where there's just not enough spots, or where they don't exist at all. And that's why at the election we promised a $1 billion dollar fund to help build centres where they're needed most. And if you want to know what that looks like, then have a look around. It's centres like this, and it's teamwork, Federal Governments and State Governments working together. Lizzie, I really want to thank you, this is a conversation that we kicked off last year and talked about how we can collaborate and work together to get this done and to provide places for parents and children here in Victoria, and it's the work that we've done here as a team that's helped to make this a reality and make a reality in other parts of Victoria. I'm a double drop‑off dad, so I get it. Didn't do it today because I was on a plane at some very early hour of the morning, but yesterday, I did the drop‑off at the child care centre and the drop‑off at the primary school, and I get that that's something that's really difficult for mums and dads across the country. If you can put it all in the one place, it makes it a lot easier. It makes it easier for parents, and it also has a real benefit for children, and improve that transition from early education to primary school. It helps you to get ready for school. And so whilst we won't invest using this fund exclusively in building centres in primary schools, when you can do it in places like this where you put it all in the one place, you get real benefits for mums and dads and for Australian children, and just look around, talk to some of the parents, you'll see the benefits that this will provide. So, I'm very glad to be here to see what the BEEF, what the Building the Early Education Fund really looks like in action. Thanks. 

JOURNALIST: Is today's announcement about State and Federal Governments kind of wresting control of the child care sector? You said right at the beginning there it's about safety. Some terrible things have happened in Victoria in the private child care system. Is that what this is about, the Government creating new centres that it can control? 

CLARE: No, what it's about is direct action where the Government itself builds centres where they're needed most. You know, as I said, there are some places where there are plenty of centres. There are some centres where the private sector, whether they're for profit or not‑for‑profit, are not investing and where mums and dads are missing out, and we think there's a role to play for the Government there in helping to build those centres. Now, it won't always mean the Government's operating the centres, it might be not-for-profit services that operate those centres, but there's a role for government in helping to make sure that the choice and the service are there for Australian parents, and that's what that billion dollar fund is all about. In terms of safety, we have made it crystal‑clear that we expect every centre in the country to meet the minimum safety standards. There's nothing more important than the safety of our kids. That's why the reforms that we're implementing are so – well, let's face it, they're pretty tough. We've passed legislation through the Parliament that says that unless you meet the minimum safety standards, then as a Commonwealth Government we will have the power to take your funding off you. Centres can't run without the funding that the Commonwealth Government provides so that they can operate, and we've made it pretty clear that unless centres get up to scratch, we reserve the right to pull that funding away from them. There's a couple of dozen centres for whom that deadline is fast approaching, and I'll have more to say about that in the next week or so. 

JOURNALIST: And we just want to ask about the school funding between Federal and State. Where are things at with the Federal Government's bilateral agreement with Victoria on the full fair funding agreement? 

CLARE: Yeah. I'm very confident that we will finalise that agreement this year. We've signed agreements now with every State and Territory for 10 years with the exception of Victoria, but I've got a fantastic working relationship with Ben Carroll who is an excellent Education Minister. 

JOURNALIST: Are you disappointed that Victoria hasn't done everything – 

CLARE: No, no, I'm very positive that we will finalise that agreement this year, and remember it's not just about money, it's about reform, and if there is one state in this country that is driving real reform in education, and I hate – I'm going to get in trouble for this tomorrow, because I can see all of my state and territory colleagues telling me about all the terrific work they're doing – but I've got to say some of the work that Ben Carroll is doing here in Victoria in the implementation of phonics and numeracy checks and explicit teaching, that's the transformational stuff that's happening in primary schools right now in Victoria, and will happen over the next decade, that will help to make sure that across the nation we lift the standard. 

JOURNALIST: The Victorian Education Union recently said Victorian teachers or Victorian schools are the lowest funded in the country. Are you worried teachers could strike? 

CLARE: Oh, look, what I would say to that is I want every school in the country to be funded at that Gonski level. 

JOURNALIST: But they're not right now in Victoria. 

CLARE: No, they're not, but because of the agreements we're striking now they will be, and you know, the awful truth is that when the Liberal Party came to power in 2013, they ripped $30 billion dollars out of funding for our public schools, and we're still living with the consequences of that today. I want every single school to be funded at the Gonski level. That's why these agreements constitute the biggest additional funding by the Australian Government in our public schools ever. It works out to around about $16 billion dollars of additional funding over the next 10 years, and about $49 billion dollars in extra funding in the decade after that, and it's not just money, it's money tied to reform, the sort of reform that Ben is rolling out here and that other States are rolling out across the country, and I'm very confident that we'll finalise that agreement. 

JOURNALIST: We’ve got schools here in Victoria, and it's made a lot of difference as well. You know, it's great to see all this money being poured into the early childhood sector, but the schools in Victoria, there are some still in disrepair. What is being done to build those schools up to scratch? 

CLARE: It's better a question for the State Education Minister, but I'm sure that if Ben was here, he would talk about the new schools that are opening this year in Victoria, it's something like 19, Lizzie, I think, but also the massive investments that I know the Victorian Labor Government is making to upgrade schools across the state. I can tell you, because I've visited some of them and seen what's happened there. There's also some additional funding by the Commonwealth Government into schools here, but the lion's share of that money is the work that the State Government's doing. 

JOURNALIST: Just moving out of Victoria for a moment, Minister Clare, a Western Sydney man appeared before Campbelltown Local Court yesterday charged with threatening to kill a Federal Parliamentarian. What does this say about the political environment currently in Australia? 

CLARE: I don't have the details on that case. 

JOURNALIST: Okay. Have you received any death threats to your office? 

CLARE: No, no, I have not, but, you know, I guess I just repeat the words of the Prime Minister that we've got to turn the temperature down in this country. You know, in the course of the last couple of months we've seen 15 innocent people murdered on the sands of Bondi Beach, we've seen a bomb dropped into a crowd in Perth which, if it had gone off, would have been a mass casualty event, you know, lots of people would have died. We had somebody else on Australia Day say threatening antisemitic words at a rally in Sydney. That person's now been jailed for the best part of a year. You know, I think as a country we know now that words can turn into bullets, but this isn't, you know, we shouldn't be mucking around here. This is really serious and I'm glad that the courts are treating it seriously. 

JOURNALIST: Recently Pauline Hanson said some things about the Muslim community. What do you make of the comments she made yesterday, I believe? 

CLARE: Well, they're, you know, they're disgusting but not surprising. You know, Pauline Hanson has made an art out of attacking people for all of her political career. I guess my message to the Liberal Party is don't follow Pauline Hanson down this racist rabbit hole, because you can't out‑racist Pauline Hanson, and if you do, you're only going to end up hurting yourself. Have you ever seen one of those videos of a snake eating a crocodile? 

JOURNALIST: It's been a while. 

CLARE: Google it. I'll tell you, it doesn't end well for the crocodile, but it also doesn't end well for the snake. And if the Liberal Party thinks that they can eat into Pauline Hanson's vote by following her down that path, then it's going to end badly for them too. Just ask some of the Teal MPs who represent seats that the Liberal Party once represented. 

JOURNALIST: Lakemba Mosque has received yet another threatening letter. How would you describe the level of hate the Muslim community is receiving at the moment? 

CLARE: Well, appalling and atrocious and terrifying, and whether it is the Muslim community or the Jewish community, the message that I want to send is the same, and it's the message that the Prime Minister is sending to the country, is that we just need to turn the temperature down here a bit. This is very, very serious. I'm not just talking about words here. Recent history tells us that words can lead to violence, and we need to pull the country together at the moment. That involves people in leadership positions who have got microphones in front of them, working to bring people together, not attacking people based on their faith or the colour of their skin. 

JOURNALIST: Minister Blandthorn, do you support the Premier for the way that she's handled the CFMEU corruption scandal so far?  

BLANDTHORN: I'm a member of the Premier's Cabinet, and of course she has my support. It's really critical when we look at events as they've unfolded over recent weeks that we remember that at the heart we're talking about working people, their wages, their conditions. I describe myself as a unionist today, but as a former union official working in one of the largest trade unions in the country for some of the lowest paid workers in the country, what's really critical is that we ensure that we have safe workplaces, that we refer all allegations of corruption to the appropriate authorities, as the Premier has indicated should and has happened, and that that remain the case, but that fundamentally, as a Labor Government, we exist to serve working people, and we should make sure that that's in our interests each and every day. 

JOURNALIST: Do you want a Royal Commission to settle how much public money, if any, was misappropriated? 

BLANDTHORN: The Premier's, one, answered that question and also made it clear that at each and every juncture she has – 

JOURNALIST: What's your answer, would you like a Royal Commission? 

SPEAKER: At each and every juncture, my advice is that the appropriate action has been taken, that referrals have been made to the appropriate authorities, but what we do need to really think about is how we best serve those people, those workers who are out there each and every day on some of the least safe workplaces in the country, in building sites where we have really a need for there to be good health and safety workplace practices. And also, right across workplaces right across our country where particularly low-paid workers are going to work expecting that their unions, their governments and others are making sure that laws are upheld. If anyone has any information that is contrary to that, as the Premier has indicated, that should, one, be reported, and two, referred. 

JOURNALIST: What do you have to say about teachers going on strike asking for better pay deals? 

BLANDTHORN: My answer to the previous question probably answers that one as well. Wherever workers, teachers, educators ‑ we're standing here in an early learning centre where we have both of those ‑ what we need to do is ensure that their wages and conditions reflect the value of their work, their dignity at work, and ensuring that they are paid fairly for the job that they do. Those conversations with the Education Union remain ongoing and both at an early education sense and in a school sense we're very confident being able to come to arrangements that reflect the value and the dignity of those people in those workplaces. 

JOURNALIST: They've been going on for about 17 months, these negotiations, will they finally come to a conclusion before the election? 

BLANDTHORN: I'm confident that we can reach a resolution that all parties are happy with.