Labor is calling for a faster rollout of the government's Working Together early learning program to provide additional support to children, families and the childcare sector.
Shadow Education and Early Years Minister Josh Willie said the program is currently capped at 120 places due to an evaluation that pre-dated COVID-19.
"The government initially committed to roll this program out to all eligible three-year old's in 2020," Mr Willie said.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has caused great disruption and uncertainty for the childcare sector and there is now capacity to provide additional support to Tasmanian children and their families.
"COVID-19 has resulted in a big drop in attendance across the sector and it is now appropriate to remove the cap.
"With the Federal Government reintroducing childcare fees and ending JobKeeper support for the industry, many families will not be able to afford childcare and there is the potential for job losses in the sector, leaving the viability of some childcare centres under a cloud.
Childcare providers like Discovery Early Learning Centres already have experience with Working Together and this is an opportunity for the State Government to support the childcare sector, children and their families when their federal colleagues have been widely criticised for withdrawing support.
"Removing the cap on the program will provide more support for at-risk children and support the ongoing viability of childcare centres around the state with up to $10.5m dollars per annum being made available as the program is rolled out.
"The change in circumstances gives us the opportunity to revisit the program and work with childcare centres through an expression-of-interest process to speed up the rollout.
"The full rollout of this program can now move ahead with the additional capacity available. The cap should be removed for the sake of Tasmanian children, families and businesses."
Josh Willie MLC
Shadow Education and Early Years Minister
