The end of this week saw additional policy promises, with Labor committing to establish a new National Preschool and Kindy Program.
The new program will commit permanent preschool funding for all three- and four-year olds, establish a $100 million facilitation fund for states and territories to ensure successful implementation, and restore $20 million in safety and quality funding for early learning centres.
Estimated to cost $9.8 billion over 10 years, the program will be complemented by the axing of upfront fees for 10,000 early childhood Tafe students.
Leader of the Opposition, the Hon Bill Shorten MP, said that “this reform will see two years of early childhood education permanently embedded into our education system, in recognition of the importance of the early years of a child’s life”.
The Morrison Government criticised Labor’s lack of coordination with the states in regards to the policy. Minister for Education, the Hon Dan Tehan MP, stated that the policy “doesn’t say who will pay for the infrastructure to house all the three-year-olds requiring preschool”.
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