"The proposals announced for Australia's education system today by Kevin Rudd and Jenny Macklin are significant," said Professor Barbara Pocock, Director of the Centre for Work and Life at the University of South Australia.
"They will help many families and children, especially those who currently miss out on quality early childhood education and care.
"At a time when the Australian economy is relying on rising rates of workforce participation, especially by mothers, it is important that our children do not fall through the cracks. This package is a very important start down the road of a national approach to consistent, quality education and care for pre-schoolers.
"It is strongly supported by a large and growing body of international research.
"Right now, Australia's record on investment in early childhood education and care places us well towards the bottom of the pack in the industrialised world."
Professor Pocock said while there had been a lot of talk in Australia about education standards in schools, there had been little focus on the pre-school years, despite a growing body of international research pointing to these years as developmentally vital.
"For 10 years there has been little or no Australian response or national leadership on the issue, so I think today's announcements are a really important step in the right direction," she said.
Prof Pocock says the ALP package gets several things right.
* It places children at the centre of the change, emphasising what is good for them - not just the economy.
* It responds to a growing body of research evidence that tells us that quality early childhood education and care are critical to the long-term life experience of children.
* It is an important step towards fixing the existing tangled mess of federal/state funding and regulation of early childhood education and care and it sets in place a process of consultation with the states to get things right at the local level.
* It promises new money for a quality service for all four years olds for 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year - and at the same time addresses the critical issues of workforce education and planning (through new university places and HECS remissions), while also promising new facilities.
* It protects parents from new costs.
* It is part of a longer term plan to improve early education and care provision for all 3-5 year olds.
"The early childhood education and care system in Australia needs a lot of help," she said. But this package goes in the right directions and promises a long term, better managed set of coordinated responses.
"They are long overdue, and they will help children and parents, as well as create long term social and economic dividends for the country," said Professor Pocock.
