Interview - ABC Melbourne Mornings

RAFAEL EPSTEIN, HOST: One of the things Anthony Albanese identified when he was in Opposition in the pandemic – it’s something that Labor MPs have used a lot on the doorstep when they campaign – child care. They are aiming for something called universal child care, so think of it as the same way everyone’s got access to primary education, the aim is to somehow give everyone access to child care. Not there yet, but an expansion today. Jess Walsh is the Minister for Early Childhood Education and one of the Labor Senators for Victoria. Good morning. 

JESS WALSH, MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: G’day, Raf. Thanks for having me. 

EPSTEIN: Just tell me precisely what’s changing? There’s an extra spend. What’s it being spent on? 

WALSH: Yeah, that’s right. So, we have a $1 billion Building Early Education Fund, and we’ve reached an agreement with Victoria that we announced today to jointly put $170 million into new child care services across the state. We’re focused, Raf, on those areas that are underserved. So growing outer suburbs and regional areas where there isn’t that access to quality early childhood education. And together we’re building 11 services with 1,100 new places for kids. Where possible, they’ll be co-located at schools. We think that school-based early learning is great for children and great for families, so we’re focused on building services co-located with schools. 

EPSTEIN: So those 11 child care centres that I think you’re saying you’re doing with the State Government, just give me an idea – $170 million, 11 centres. How long will it be until they’re open? Are they months away, years away? Can you give me some time scale? 

WALSH: Yeah, I can. It’s over the next four years, Raf. And some are opening in 2026, and really every year through to 2029. So we want every child to have the benefits of early learning, no matter what their postcode is, no matter where they live. And this is a big part of that commitment that you talked about in your intro there, Raf.

EPSTEIN: Your Government’s been pumping money into child care, making it easier in many ways for child care to be accessed. But the prices keep going up. How come? 

WALSH: Yeah, so we want early learning to be more affordable. We need families to be able to access quality early childhood education. We’ve seen some figures around child care inflation that you’ve been talking about, but in fact, what’s actually going on is that we’ve capped fee growth across the sector at about 3.5 per cent. And we’ve also increased the Child Care Subsidy going to families, as I think you know, Raf, so families earning up to $85,000 a year get a 90 per cent Child Care Subsidy. And that’s bringing the costs down for families at around $3500 a year in savings. So we know that early learning is becoming more affordable because of those measures. But there’s still more to do, and we’re determined to keep doing that work. 

EPSTEIN: There are still child care droughts as well, aren’t there? Like, there’s lots of places where you just can’t get the kids in. So, I guess a similar question – you keep changing the rules. You say it’s to people’s benefit. You keep pumping more money in. It’s still very hard for some people to find the child care that works?

WALSH: Yeah, well, we want parents to have the choice of finding a really good quality early learning service in their area. There’s about a million families who are supported by the Child Care Subsidy today – 1.4 million children. So, there’s a lot of families out there who are benefitting from early learning. But we definitely want to see more families benefit, particularly in those growing outer suburbs and regions, where you’re right, Raf, there are just not enough services out there. And that’s why we’re investing $1 billion to build more quality early learning across the country, again, particularly in those growing outer suburbs in our regions as well. And, where possible, we want that to be co-located with schools because we know that’s great for families. We know that the double drop-off is no good for people, and we want to make life easier for families. And when early learning is co-located with schools it gives children the opportunity to transition more smoothly to school and really sets them up well for school and for life. 

EPSTEIN: Yeah, co-location, if you can get it and it works, of course we would prefer it. Jess Walsh is the Minister for Early Childhood Education in Anthony Albanese’s Federal Labor Government. A lot of the child care conversation, Senator, has been about some really horrendous allegations in child care. Do you think parents feel safer at not-for-profit centres? 

WALSH: Well, we definitely want to see more quality not-for-profit services, Raf, and that’s why the Building Early Education Fund is dedicated to not-for-profit early learning. We know that families do want to see more not-for-profits out there and that’s exactly why we’re investing in building them. 

EPSTEIN: But do you think people feel safer? 

WALSH: Well, we want to make sure that people are safe across the sector. Seventy per cent of the sector, as you know, is for-profit. We’re not taking our eye off that sector at all. We have delivered a national child safety package, standing together with the States and Territories. That is the biggest reform, necessary reform, to help keep children safe in early learning. Some of those things are rolling out just next week. And I just want to highlight that from next week every early childhood educator in the country will start to receive mandatory child safe training for the first time. That’s a big part of that reform. And at the same time next week we’ll start the first ever nationwide register of early childhood educators as well. 

EPSTEIN: Okay. 

WALSH: So, we’re determined to strengthen the sector, Raf, and that includes for children in not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. 

EPSTEIN: Just before I let you go, there’s some talk in the Opposition about vouchers for nannies. At the moment, we effectively, I guess, in some ways we give a voucher to a parent, and they take it to the child care centre. The Coalition argument might be, give the voucher to a nanny. Is the Government going to back something like that? 

WALSH: We have no plans for that, Raf. And we await details of these ideas and thoughts that are coming from the Coalition. 

EPSTEIN: Is there any merit in that idea? 

WALSH: Well, we’re focused on building choices for families today. As I said before, there’s a million families supported by the Child Care Subsidy, and that is what gives people choice – having a quality early childhood education and care centre in their community. We know there’s more to do for that. That’s why we’re building more services with Victoria, with our $170 million agreement that we’re making today. It’s why we’ve got that $1 billion Building Early Education Fund. Because what is really key for building choice for families is having a quality early learning service in your community. 

EPSTEIN: Thanks for your time. 

WALSH: Thanks, Raf.