Federal government accused squibbing on preschool funding issue because it won’t buy them votes

The federal government has been accused of failing to take the issue of preschool funding seriously because it won’t buy them votes, with the current top electorates with children attending early learning stacked towards Labor.

Exclusive: The federal government has been accused of failing to take the issue of preschool funding seriously because the current top electorates with children attending early learning are stacked towards Labor.

Exclusive freedom of information data obtained by News Corp Australia shows all but three of the top ten electorates with four-year-olds attending preschool are held by Labor and the sector has cried foul on the Coalition’s commitment to our kids learning.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg extended commonwealth funding under the Universal Access program for preschools for another year to 2020 in the federal budget, committing $453 million.

But the sector said it fell short of what was needed and does not allow early childhood educators to forward plan appropriately.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg extended commonwealth funding under the Universal Access program for preschools for another year to 2020 in the federal budget. Picture: AAP

It also fell short of Labor’s plan for continuous funding for three and four year olds.

With data showing Labor electorates are home to the highest number of children attending preschool, some suggested the Coalition was squibbing on the issue because it won’t buy them votes.

Lalor in Victoria is the electorate with the most children attending preschool in 2019 which is held by Labor’s Joanne Ryan.

A total of 5348 children were projected to be enrolled this year in the electorate according to the FOI documents provided by the Federal Department of Education.

This is followed by Holt, McEwen, Gorton and Fenner which are all Labor held.

Only the Coalition-held seats of Forde, McMillan and Pearce scrape into the top 10.

According to the Department of Education the per child Commonwealth contribution to the

National Partnership Agreement to Universal Access to Early Childhood Education for 2019 is $1263.

Modelling of the top 10 electorates for preschool attendance and spend based on the amount of commonwealth funding per four year old under the Universal Access program — $1263 per child.

Alys Gagnon, executive director of The Parenthood, said any party that did not take seriously funding for preschool was “abrogating their responsibility to the nation’s children”.

“What these numbers tell me is that there are thousands and thousands of children who will miss out on the opportunity to get the best start in life, and the opportunity to flourish. And, that’s just four-year-olds,” Ms Gagnon said.

“I don’t understand how anyone can look into the face of a child and effectively say, you don’t deserve to go to preschool and when we as a nation refuse to fund preschool, that’s effectively what we’re doing.”

The early childhood education sector said Josh Frydenberg’s proposal fell short of what was needed. Picture: iStock

Chief executive of Early Learning Australia, Sam Page, said Australian families deserved better than “electorate-based decision making”.

“Preschool funding should be locked in for the long term to allow for service planning and investment that will provide certainty for children approaching the beginning of their education journey,” Ms Page said.

Former NSW Education Minister now head of the Gonski Institute for Education Adrian Piccoli said he didn’t believe the federal government was basing its funding decisions on the electorates where most children attended. But he said the federal government was not taking the issue of preschool funding seriously.

“The evidence not just in Australia but the world is that children will perform better at school when they have access to early high quality childhood education,” Mr Piccoli said.

Head of the Gonski Institute for Education Adrian Piccoli said he didn’t believe the federal government was basing its funding decisions on the electorates where most children attended.

He said heading into an election both parties needed to take preschool funding seriously.

“It is a big cost of living question for young families … women between the ages of 25 and 40 are the key swing demographic and childcare is big cost of living pressure for them.”

Labor’s early childhood spokeswoman Amanda Rishworth said it was “disappointing” that the electorates that will feel the biggest impact of any discontinuation of federal preschool funding were Labor held seats.

“Considering the overwhelming amount of evidence of the benefits of early learning has- I would hope that it wasn’t a politically motivated decision by the Prime Minister not to provide ongoing funding to four year old preschool/kindy,” Ms Rishworth said.

“Every child, no matter their location, deserves access to early education.”

Education Minister Dan Tehan did not respond prior to publication.

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Originally published as Federal government accused squibbing on preschool funding issue because it won’t buy them votes