The Liberals have slammed the government for not funding kindy for three-year-olds in its first budget

The Liberals have slammed the state government over kindy for three-year-olds, saying a key election promise has not been honoured in its first budget.

The state government’s election promise of universal preschool for all three-year-old South Australians is under fire yet again.

After accusing Labor of backflipping on the key policy last week, on Sunday the Liberal Party slammed the government, saying millions needed to roll out the program were missing from its first budget.

Opposition spokesman for education John Gardner said beyond funding a $2m royal commission into early childhood education, the government had failed to deliver its promise and families would be right to feel betrayed.

“This is a commitment that will cost up to $100m a year to deliver, but not one dollar has been allocated to make it a reality,” Mr Gardner said.

“Voters who saw election posters with the no. 1 point in ‘Labor’s plan for education’ being ‘universal three-year-old preschool’ would rightly expect that the promise would be delivered in this government’s first term.”

Mr Gardner said funding a royal commission did not fully deliver on its election commitment but would do “the policy work Labor didn’t do before the election”.

“That money should be in the budget from 2026 if Labor was keeping its election promises,” he said.

“If they were going to have royal commission it shouldn’t stop them from putting money in the budget to deliver the actual thing people were looking for.”

John Gardner. Picture: Matt Loxton

Peter Malinauskas. Picture: Matt Loxton

Before the budget’s release last week, Education Minister Blair Boyer said there were a “number of very big issues that we need to deal with first” before the government could provide 15 hours of preschool for all children.

But on Sunday, Premier Peter Malinauskas said the rollout would happen on time.

“Funding a royal commission to get the state in a position to start delivering three-year-old preschool by 2026 – that’s the commitment and that’s exactly what we are going to deliver,” Mr Malinauskas said.

“This is the single biggest undertaking that our education system has ever seen and we are determined to deliver it and that’s why we are having a royal commission – to make sure we are getting it right from the start.”