$645m to make kindy free for all Queenslanders in cost-of-living state budget
Free kindy for all Queensland families will start next year following a state budget cash splash, with the government to work with the sector so it is ready for a big jump in enrolments.
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Queensland families will save thousands of dollars a year under a $645m state budget cash splash to make kindergarten free for all children.
The major cost-of-living measure has been labelled a “historic investment in Queensland children” by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, with parents to save about $4600 a year.
Treasurer Cameron Dick is set to hand down a cost-of-living-focused state budget on Tuesday, with electricity rebates to ease bill shock expected to be the government’s centrepiece alongside the $645m package to make kindy free.
The state government has already announced about $16bn of spending in the budget, driven primarily by a $14bn commitment to the Borumba pumped hydro project.
New kindy cash will allow 50,000 additional children to attend kindy at no cost on top of those across 14,000 families – including those who are vulnerable, disadvantaged, of First
Nations background, or have triplets – who already access it for free.
Free kindy for all will apply from January 1, 2024, with the government to work “closely with the sector” so it is ready for the expected higher number of enrolments in the lead-up.
In Queensland, children attend kindy in the financial year they are scheduled to turn four with the educational program designed to be part-time and mirror the school term.
Children will benefit from free kindy regardless of whether they attend a community kindergarten or kindy in a long day care, though service providers will need to opt in to the program.
Treasurer Cameron Dick said the measure would help parents, particularly women, get back into the workforce which “will have a significant economic impact”.
Education Minister Grace Grace said the move would “change the lives of thousands of children and families every single year”.
It comes less than two weeks after Ms Palaszczuk flagged she was “seriously considering” the measure.
The $645m package brings the total investment in kindergarten to $2bn across four years, with $120m of the total sum going toward attracting and retaining stuff, $91m to supporting children with disability and $112m for the Kindy Uplift program.
Ongoing funding is committed beyond the forward estimates to ensure kindy remains free.
A vast majority of kindy in the state is delivered by private providers, though a small amount of children – about 850 – get the program through 130 government-run kindy programs set up where no other service is available.
According to the federal government a family on about $120,000 with a child in care three days a week the changes will cut costs by about $1700 a year.
Mr Dick had described the 2023-24 state budget as the hardest to craft so far, with the need to balance “delivering relief” to Queenslanders without making inflation worse.
Household budgets have come under increasing stress with mortgage repayments rising again after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised the cash rate to 4.1 per cent – the highest in 11 years.
And regional Queenslanders are in line for the highest power price hike in the nation from July, with the Queensland Competition Authority pushing up prices 28.7 per cent to an average $1926 for residential customers.
The state government has committed to providing power rebates worth more than $175 to Queenslanders, with the final sum to be outlined in the budget.
The budget will also include $35m to investigate a potential 7km tolled tunnel from Kedron to Carseldine to ease congestion on Brisbane’s northside, and $322m to build, buy or lease 500 more social housing homes.
There will be $42m for maternity services, including expansion of outreach obstetrics and gynaecology services in rural and regional Queensland and $64.3m to buy or lease emergency accommodation facilities in Brisbane.
While last year’s budget included a new mental-health levy and controversial changes to coal royalties, Mr Dick vowed there wouldn’t be “substantive” changes to revenue measures this time.
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