Interview - ABC Tasmania Mornings
KYLIE BAXTER, HOST: Jess Walsh joins me, of course, the Early Childhood Education Minister. A very good morning to you, Jess.
JESS WALSH, MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: Good morning, Kylie. It's great to be in Devonport.
BAXTER: So, what was your announcement this morning?
WALSH: So, today we are announcing a $4 million dollar commitment to expand the Malangenna Children's Centre in Devonport. This is a great not-for-profit service that's been going for around 30 years, but it needs a bit of extra support to expand. So, our investment will deliver another 70 places, which is good news for children and families in the area. It takes the capacity of this really important local service up to around 150 places. So, that is going to help more children and more families get access to quality early childhood education in Devonport for years to come. And we want that to happen because we know just how good quality early education is for kids and how much support it provides to families too.
BAXTER: And I understand, do I have this right, that you're working with TasTAFE?
WALSH: Yeah, that's right. So, this service is co-located with TasTAFE Devonport. Great for people who work there to have the service just next door. And Malangenna Children's Service will be acquiring some of the land from Devonport TAFE and that will enable the expansion. They're putting some money into that, which is fantastic. We're kicking in $4 million dollars. It's part of our $1 billion Building Early Education Fund. And this is actually the seventh service that we're building or expanding across Tasmania. We are working with the Tasmanian Government directly as well to build new services co-located with schools from as far south as Bruny Island all the way through Tasmania up to this service in Devonport as well.
BAXTER: And so, we know that child care places are really hard to find. I haven't heard from anyone yet about their experience but please do text if you have an experience to share about trying and, you know, having difficulty getting a child care place. But have you talked to the local community? How much of a difference will these extra 70 places make?
WALSH: Yes, I have talked to the local community. Indeed, this is a project that was advocated for by Anne Urquhart who's the member for Braddon up here in northern Tasmania. She brought me down to the region for a roundtable where I met with mayors and local providers who did talk about the area in general being undersupplied, and we know that that is the case here in northern Tasmania and it's a common story around regional areas. There can be more young families than there are child care places and that's why we have this $1 billion fund and we're working together with State and Territory governments around the nation and with communities to build the quality early learning services that they need. They're all operated by quality, not-for-profit providers. And in many cases, as is the case here in Tasmania, we're co-locating services with primary schools because we think that's great for kids to be in early learning but see that big school next door and we think it's great for families too to avoid that dreaded double drop off in the morning and just get a bit more support to make ends meet and help balance family life as well.
BAXTER: My guest is Jess Walsh, Early Childhood Education Minister. Why did Devonport, you know, get the funding? Because there's so many places that probably would like more child care spots.
WALSH: Yeah, great question. And as I say Kylie, this is the seventh project across Tasmania. It's never been done before that the Commonwealth comes in and actually builds early learning services with communities and with the state government. Devonport has been identified in a couple of ways. First, as I said, this was an election commitment made by Anne Urquhart who's now the Member for Braddon. We think it's really important to deliver that commitment. Anne has been such a strong advocate for her community. We are delivering on the commitment that she made. More generally, Devonport is an area that is underserved today and it is a lower socio-economic area as well in parts, and those are our criteria for making our investments under our big, $1 billion Building Early Education Fund. We want to go into places that have a need for more quality early learning, and we know that lower socio-economic areas as well as really get the most benefit from additional child care services. Quality early learning is good for all children but it's particularly great for children who do come from disadvantaged backgrounds as well.
BAXTER: And just lastly, for parents who are listening right now currently on waiting lists around Tasmania, and I think there is a lot of waiting happening, what would you say to them today?
WALSH: Oh, look I would say that this is great news for Tasmania. Seven new services that are long term investments in public infrastructure –
BAXTER: But are there more on the way? I suppose that's what they'd like to know.
WALSH: More than the seven on the way?
BAXTER: Yep.
WALSH: So, there could be. There are two more rounds of the Building Early Education Fund to go. So, Tasmania's done well with seven from our first set of projects. What we're doing now is working directly with not-for-profit providers. We're asking them to put proposals forward and we're assessing those proposals at the moment. So, two more grant rounds to go and we're hopeful of more good news for Tasmanians.
BAXTER: Good to catch up. Thanks, Jess.
WALSH: Thanks, Kylie.