Mr Deputy Speaker,
I wish to ask the Minister representing the Minister for Education, Greg Hunt, why his proposed childcare funding bills leave almost 40% of the families accessing childcare worse off, and how he plans to target those children most in need of early childhood intervention programs?
I have experience in this area going back over 30 years through my work as a paediatrician, and in my electorate of Macarthur we have a large number of children with developmental needs.
In Macarthur, we have:
- A large Indigenous population
- A large number of single parent families
- A large number of children living below the poverty line
- A large number of families suffering from chronic illness
- And A large number of families with learning difficulties
Many of the families that I have seen through my work as a paediatrician present to me late, may have to wait one year for assessment, and have difficulty accessing recent funding and engaging with preschools, speech therapists and other interventional agencies.
There is overwhelming evidence that intervention in the first thousand days of life makes the largest gains in developmental outcomes.
However, the government’s bills will reduce the ability for these children to access quality childcare and do not appear to recognise the needs of the most disadvantaged children.
I have seen many families with multigenerational educational failure and poverty.
The only way out of this cycle is with education and early intervention.
Minister Hunt – What is this government doing to break the cycle of multigenerational educational failure? And why is there such a delay in implementing the funding? What plans are there to better integrate preschool/school transition for these families with learning difficulties and complex needs?
Many families I see are of low income. Many of them will also see access to preschool halved.
Minister Hunt – why do we need to wait until July 2018 for these funding measures to start?
The Minister for social security has trumpeted his reforms to reduce spending, however it would be of much more value to our society if preschool placement could be made more available to children at risk between if we can improve educational outcomes for these children and families our social security spending will be much less.
Our aim should be that all children receive quality childcare.
In my experience as a paediatrician astute preschool teachers are the best people to identify children at risk of poor developmental outcomes, and it is vitally important that this assessment happens before the child turns 3 if intervention is to be of most benefit. Many studies have shown that if we can improve developmental outcome for children in high risk families then the future for the entire family will be better. In the 21st century surely we can do better to provide quality early childhood support to all of our children, but in particular to those most at risk.
This is about equality and access.
