Jay Weatherill appointed Officer in the Order of Australia for serving as SA Premier 2011-2018 and working to improve education

Former Premier Jay Weatherill – recognised as an AO in Australia Day honours – says learning from birth onwards will set up young minds better for the future.

Australia must create a single national early-learning system for children under five to boost the development of young brains and drive a richer, smarter, happier nation, according to former Labor premier Jay Weatherill.

He has been appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia for his contribution as premier from 2011-2018 and his work to improve early childhood and tertiary education.

Now living in Perth where he runs Thrive by Five, part of mining billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation, Mr Weatherill will step up the campaign for birth-to-five learning in Canberra next month.

Jay Weatherill has been appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia for his contribution as premier from 2011-2018 and his work to improve early childhood and tertiary education. Picture: AAP / Richard Wainwright

Mr Weatherill, 56, dedicated his AO to those who worked with young children because, he said, their crucial role was underappreciated and often underpaid.

He said research showed a child’s brain, properly stimulated, rapidly developed from birth in ways that had lifetime benefits.

But Australia treated children as if they only started learning when they went to school – too late for that crucial early neural development.

The problem was made worse by the fractured nature of care for young children, split between agencies and governments, he said. This meant many fell through the cracks.

Mr Weatherill, a lawyer, said one of the biggest lessons he learnt in parliament was that injustice was closely linked to brain development.

“The longer I stayed, the more I looked around, the genesis of all the problems really began in the early years,” he said.

Mr Weatherill said children’s brains developed a million neural connections a second from interactions with others, but failure to spur those changes damaged the ability to control emotions, organise thoughts, and enter relationships.

The answer was to offer high-quality learning for every child from birth, but not make it compulsory.

Skilled child educators would support families, empowering parents with the knowledge and ability to help their children in play-based learning. There would be places in every neighbourhood to support parents.

Reflecting on politics, Mr Weatherill nominated his focus on early learning, renewable energy, and trying to make public discourse more civil as policies he felt important.