The Labor Party has called on the government to commit to building additional child and family centres in the wake of the school starting age reversal.
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In Parliament on Wednesday, Opposition education spokeswoman Michelle O’Byrne questioned Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff on whether he would commit to funding and building new child and family centres in areas of disadvantage.
On Monday, Mr Rockliff announced that the government would no longer be pushing to lower the school starting age in Tasmania and would instead fund a new preschool initiative for disadvantaged children.
“This is a different plan to what was originally proposed. That is because we have listened and changed our plan as a result,” he said.
Mr Rockliff said he was aware of the benefit of the child and family centres and said the government was resourcing them more than the previous government.
“There is no stronger supporter than me for our child and family centres, which is why this government has committed more resources to building child and family centres,” he said.
Following Monday’s announcement, Tasmanian Principals Association president Malcolm Elliott said Tasmania now had the opportunity to “do something really special”.
“The sooner that we are looking into designed opportunities for everybody to get access to high-quality education, the better,” he said.
“We’ll be expecting to see significant benefits moving through the schooling system and leading, ultimately, to better life opportunities for children and for the social and economic benefit of our state.
“There’s lots of time now for us to get our heads around the detail, to understand what the implications might be.”
A KPMG report into the impact lowering the school starting age would have had on the childcare sector, released this week, found that approved service providers could have expected to see the loss of demand to be around 25 per cent.
“Where services are maintained with a fee increase, some families may reevaluate their decision whether or not to work, can they earn sufficient income to cover high fees,” the report said.
The report found that if the changes would have gone ahead, fee increases would have been between 12.9 per cent to 34.6 per cent.
The report found that the current average cost of child care in Tasmania was $86.06 per day, minus any benefits.
