Thread by @georgiedent

I just dug out this interview from Budget night back in May 2015 when @albericie interviewed myself & Julia Davison the CEO of @GoodStartel on #Lateline about.... DRUMROLL ... the need to reimagine early childhood education & care in Australia.
abc.net.au/lateline/inter… #auspol

A few reflections. First, the fact @albericie gave early education & care and paid parental leave (not to mention a very green TV talking head) airtime on Budget night was not nothing. It was testament to her appreciation of these issues as critical - especially for women.

Second. Five and a half years later I am still singing from the same song-sheet. Verbatim*.

*Paraphrased in the thread below with a few grammatical tweaks (I've taken this license on account of being a very green TV-talker as the transcript makes clear)

'Out of OECD countries, Australia actually comes last in terms of the percentage of our GDP that we invest in pre-primary education. The OECD average is 0.6% of a nation's GDP that they invest in early education system. In Australia we invest 0.2%'

'We're still at a point where people think investing any money in child care is a waste of money...that it's welfare for people who don't need it. As a community we don't recognise that health, economic & educational outcomes are dramatically improved for children'.

'Leadership hasn't demonstrated the case for early learning & care not simply as a means to increase women's workforce participation. That's a legitimate issue in its own right ...'

'In the UK, for example, a Conservative government is saying, 'We're going to invest 30 hours free child care for every 4-year-old in the country. No matter what your parents earn or don't earn, that's what every child is entitled to,'.'

'We need to be looking at that and asking, 'Well why are we in such a different position in our thinking?'
So fast forward 5.5 years let me say this.
Well why are we STILL in such a different position in our thinking?
The End.