Thrive by Five comments on WA election and both parties for commitment to early years

The Thrive by Five campaign have welcomed commitments made by the West Australian Labor party to boost early learning and literacy across the state, should the party be successful in securing a win at the next election, to be held 13 March. 

In a recent announcement the presiding Labor government committed to the following, should they hold power moving forward:

• invest $14.5 million into programs that give children a head start in early learning and literacy;
• expand the Better Beginnings literacy program to the Kimberley and Pilbara regions so children in remote areas can access developmentally appropriate books and other resources; and
• deliver funding for a new state-wide Creative Schools WA program to help children learn in creative ways.

Jay Weatherill, Thrive by Five CEO, congratulated the government for “heeding the growing community calls for greater government investment in the early learning system.”

“The momentum is building for creating a better early learning system for children, parents, educators and the Australian economy, especially as we recover from the COVID crisis,” he said.

In lending his support, Mr Weatherill was quick to point out that the community “wants leaders to stop playing politics with the development of our nation’s most valuable asset – our children.” 

“We need a bipartisan approach to fix the system and I congratulate Premier McGowan for taking leadership, particularly in improving opportunities in regional WA.”

The support of the Labor announcement by Thrive by Five comes after Mr Weatherill last month welcomed an election commitment by the WA Liberals to boost early childhood education across Western Australia.

That policy announcement, made by WA Liberal leader Zak Kirkup, includes:

• $30 million for an additional ten (10) Child and Parent Centres, providing an integrated one-stop-shop for WA families to access a range of early childhood development programmes, services and advice.
• An additional $8 million trial program to expand the Department of Education’s Language Outreach Service to offer face-to-face speech pathology support for students and teachers within selected government primary schools.
• The development of a WA Play Based Learning Strategy to highlight the importance of play, particularly in the early years, alongside other evidence-based learning practices.

To read the WA Liberals early childhood education election commitment, please see here. The recently released Labor announcement may be found here.