BEST START, BEST LIFE: free kinder

Premier Daniel Andrews – Media Release

The Andrews Labor Government will deliver an ambitious overhaul of early childhood education and care, with a massive $9 billion investment over the next decade to save families money and support women to return to the
workforce.

Childcare fees are crippling family budgets, with the typical household spending up to 20 per cent of their income to cover these ever-increasing costs.

Because federal childcare subsidies go down as household income goes up, many families sit around the kitchen table doing their sums and realise taking on extra days or hours at work just doesn’t add up when childcare costs are weighed against the extra wages.
Being a stay-at-home parent is a legitimate choice – but it should be one that’s made based on what works for individual families, not one forced by the limitations of the childcare system.

Plainly, it’s bad for mums and their families. But it’s also bad for our state, as our economy misses out on their skills and experience. Lack of access to childcare takes almost 26,600 women entirely out of the workforce in Victoria and costs our economy $1.5 billion per year in lost earnings alone.
That’s why the Andrews Labor Government will expand the Best Start, Best Life program with three major new initiatives:

• Making kinder free across the state
• Delivering a new year of universal Pre-Prep for 4-year-olds
• Establishing 50 government operated childcare centres

This means from 2023, any family with a three or four-year-old will pay nothing for kinder – a saving of up to $2,500 per child every year.
Three-Year-Old Kinder is already rolling out across the state, expanding universal access to 15 hours of government funded kinder every week – and from next year, it will be free.
Four-Year-Old Kinder will also be free, providing much-needed relief for family budgets and giving more women a choice to return to the workforce.

Over the next decade, Four-Year-Old Kinder will transition to Pre-Prep – increasing to a universal 30-hour a week program of play-based learning for every four-year-old child in Victoria.
Pre-Prep will be delivered through kinders and long day care centres, creating a high-quality, universal program to give four-year-old kids the opportunity to socialise and learn through play.

The Victorian Pre-Prep Taskforce will be established in the coming weeks and bring staff, unions, early childhood experts, local government, kinder and long day care providers and other stakeholders to the table to help design the Pre-Prep curriculum and inform the implementation of the program.

Premier Daniel Andrews said these massive reforms are about setting our kids up for the future and investing in women – who for far too long have had to do far too much.
“These are big changes, but they just make sense – giving our kids the very best start in life and delivering early education and care that actually works for families,” he said.