Mr BAYLEY – Minister, a question about the three-year-old kinder pilot that was promised for Bruny Island at the beginning of last year. Eighteen months later, there’s still no action that’s been taken to begin the necessary renovations for the kinder to open. There’s currently 10 children who would be eligible for this program by next year, but if it doesn’t start by 2025, there will only be two three-year-olds on the island who’d be eligible for the program in 2026.
We’re really interested if you can give a commitment to open this facility in 2025 for the school year, regardless of the condition; whether you’ll give a commitment longer-term to build a new fit-for-purpose facility, as opposed to just a renovation; and also whether the trial period started when you announced it or when you open it.
Ms PALMER – Thank you very much. I’m going to seek some advice on that question and then I’ll pass to the acting secretary. But, with your indulgence, Chair, I’d like to correct the record, if that’s okay?
In a question that was asked of Mr Fairs, the member for Bass, with regard to some figures that I laid out for incentives for student teachers, I want to correct the record. I should have said – and this came through from the Teachers Agreement – that, when a teacher is relocating, they are eligible for a $5000 Centrelink payment, then, as soon as they begin, on commencement, there is a payment of $2759, and on completion of each year of service in the first three years there is a payment of $2759, and then on completion of service for years four, five and six of continuous employment there is a payment of $5523, and I apologise I read out the wrong figure.
CHAIR – Now to Mr Bayley’s question.
Ms PALMER – Thank you very much. I’ll pass to the acting secretary, thank you.
Ms BURGESS – The Early Learning for Three Year Olds is a very exciting initiative. Unfortunately, it hasn’t moved as quickly as we would have hoped for a number of reasons, one of those being that we’ve been really committed to working with the sector as well as working with local communities to make sure that what we’re going to be offering is going to be fit for purpose.
We have the trial site at Bruny Island, we’ve established the local enabling groups so that work can progress, and we’re still working through the logistics of that. As you would appreciate, with any site that three-year-olds have access to, it needs to ensure that it meets the national quality standards. We’ve been working with the regulator, the Education and Care Unit, to make sure that the building is fit for purpose so that it can have little people in there.
We’ve also established community inclusion workers to make sure that we’re working with the community in a way that is responsive to their needs. In discussions with the working group that we’ve established, we’re not yet ready to commence that trial this year. We have talked to some communities – but I’m not sure whether it is at the Bruny Island one – about if we haven’t got the facility ready would they want us to start a service. But, certainly in the context of some communities, they actually want to wait until we’ve got the physical site ready and then roll out the service.
Mr BAYLEY – And so, is that the case with Bruny? Like, next year, is not an option? You mentioned you’re not ready this year, but is next year an option?
Ms BURGESS – We’re absolutely working towards next year for all of them.
Mr BAYLEY – You are? Right. Thank you very much.
To the minister: I appreciate that it’s, I guess, retrofitting a facility to make it fit for purpose in the short term or medium term, but have you got an aspiration – will you give a commitment to building a new fit-for-purpose facility on Bruny Island, or advocating for?
Ms PALMER – That’s not something that I’ve been looking at the moment, but I’m always open to having discussions. We’ve really laid out our capital commitment in the infrastructure space, but I am always open to having discussions. We know how important the first 1000 days are of a little one’s life and the department is certainly working on this particular project, and it will be good to see that come to fruition in 2025 for Bruny Island.
Mr BAYLEY – Chair, there was just one more element to that question which was around the trial period. I assume it would be logical to start on the day that the little people start as opposed to when it was announced. Is that fair for stakeholders to assume?
Ms BURGESS – That’s correct? As you’d appreciate, there are a range of complexities that we need to work through with regards to how the trial operates, how the funding works, what that looks like from provision. We chose five communities that were really complex for us and that’s why we’re doing a trial. We didn’t want to go with areas where it was easy to solve. We wanted to go to those communities where it was far more complex for us so that we could test the parameters of the model. So, yes, we won’t start the clock ticking until such time as we get kids in there, but the idea is that we learn from those and once we’ve distilled the complexities, the issues, the workforce issues, we’ll then be able to say, okay, we’re next and how can we scale up.
Mr BAYLEY – Thank you, that’s very helpful.
