Snapshot:
At CELA's AGM, Emeritus Professor Deborah Brennan shared insights on the Productivity Commission’s Early Childhood Education and Care Inquiry during a discussion with CELA CEO Michele Carnegie.
Professor Brennan highlighted the three foundational pillars for a universal early education system: quality, inclusion, and access, noting their interdependence for equitable provision.
She emphasised that quality services often vary by location, with disparities affecting remote and less affluent areas.
Professor Brennan underscored the importance of community-based and non-profit providers, which often achieve higher standards and fulfil needs in areas underserved by for-profit services.
Addressing challenges, she advised collective, optimistic action to sustain reform efforts.
The conversation concluded with an emphasis on learning from past reforms, building an Australian vision for ECEC, and the importance of community engagement in developing services. Professor Brennan expressed pride in the report’s child-centric focus and its community-driven recommendations.
Full transcript
Michele Carnegie: I guess I'd like to start with almost where you arrived after that extensive consultation with the sector. The Productivity Commission's (PC's) report really outlines quality, inclusion, and access as the pillars for a universal early education. Can you explain to our members and our team and our board why this is the foundation for the PC's vision?
Professor Deb Brennan: Thanks so much, Michele. I'd be delighted to do that, and I really am genuinely thrilled to be with CELA this afternoon. The community-based early education movement is very close to my heart, and I have had a very long association with you in various guises, so it's wonderful to be here.
I know we don't have a lot of time, so I'm going to be focused in my responses to you, Michelle, and thank you for making mention of the three critical pillars that the Productivity Commission based our recommendations around. As you said, quality, inclusion, and access. And I think what I'd say about those three is that they really are foundational pillars, and they support one another. Without each one of them, we believe that the system would not be truly universal in the aspirational sense that we put forward in the report.
I don't need to tell this group about the evidence on the significance of quality and the importance of ensuring that services have to be of high quality if we want the benefits delivered to children and families. Our report made it really clear that we have a very uneven system of quality in Australia, where the highest-rated services tend to be in more affluent and urban areas, while lower-rated services are more concentrated in remote, rural areas and outer suburbs. This is not to say we don’t have excellent services in these areas, but the distribution pattern is clear and unfair, so we need to lift our game in quality.
Similarly, our report argued compellingly that unless all services are inclusive, we won't have a truly universal system. We made a detailed case that we need a new, well-resourced approach to inclusion to make our system genuinely accessible to every child and family. More funding is needed to support children with disabilities and developmental delays, and we need a system that recognises a broad range of needs for inclusion.
Finally, in relation to the third pillar, access, our report incorporates both supply (having a service available for a community) and affordability. So, the service must be there, affordable, of high quality, and inclusive. These are why we landed on those pillars and how we see them working together.
Michele Carnegie: Deb, we were really pleased to be able to contribute to the Productivity Commission process and share our views on the role of community and small providers via our submissions in conjunction with Community Child Care Association. What role do you see community and small providers playing in creating that new universal high-quality system?
Professor Deb Brennan: Thanks for that, Michele. First of all, I’d like to say that all the commissioners really valued the meetings we had with you personally, with representatives from Community Child Care, and the joint submissions we received. All three commissioners read every single submission that came into the inquiry, and I was immensely impressed by that aspect of the process.
To my mind, community-based and small providers are a critical part of the sector. The community-based non-profit sector is where we came from, and I think services that embrace this ethos of delivery and community engagement play an essential flagship role. Evidence shows that non-profit services are generally of higher quality compared to for-profit services, though there is excellence across the sector in both. The ACCC inquiry, our research, and our analysis of ACECQA data, as well as the South Australian Royal Commission, underscored the significance of community-based and small providers.
Our report includes multiple mentions of non-profit provision, particularly in areas where the market won’t grow, and private providers are unlikely to go. The report as a whole, and all three commissioners, recommend prioritising non-profit services in these areas. I also included a supplementary statement in the report (pages 336 to 339), where I advised the government that unless we shift from a heavy reliance on private, for-profit provision, we won’t achieve the outcomes anticipated from universal early childhood education and care.
Michele Carnegie: CELA is now very much focused on helping the Federal Government bring the Productivity Commission's vision to life. It’s going to take time to get it right. How do we maintain the stamina for major reform, especially as we get into the details of implementation? There are many voices in the sector, and they’re not always unified. How do we maintain the momentum to make it happen?
Professor Deb Brennan: The key for me is always to stay focused on our central objective, which is improving the lives of children and supporting families in raising them. I’ve been in the sector a long time, and it can be exhausting and sometimes disappointing. But right now, early childhood education and care are in the spotlight both politically and in policy terms. This is a critical moment.
We need to look for commonalities, work with allies, and collaborate where we can. I understand not everyone has the energy for multiple fronts, but those who do should work with professional associations, services, parents, and colleagues. We must find joy and pleasure in collective effort. The ECEC sector is a wonderful field, and celebrating our achievements helps sustain us. We need to stay optimistic, focused, and keep pushing forward.
Michele Carnegie: We’re so fortunate at CELA to have such strong connections with our members. We talk to them every day through our support line, professional development, consulting, enabling us to use real-life examples in our discussions with the government. These examples are often very current, grounded in what’s happening day-to-day.
Professor Deb Brennan: Yes, it’s very grounded and crucial for developing place-based solutions that work for families and communities. That’s how you build quality service by service.
Michele Carnegie: What do you think we can learn from past inquiries and reviews in achieving lasting change?
Professor Deb Brennan: One lesson is that change is possible, though often slow and not always linear. I’ve compared the recommendations from previous Productivity Commission reports with the current ones, and it’s clear we’re on a different path now, thanks to extensive engagement with the sector and the community. We need to work collectively, find allies, and embrace what Christine Woodrow calls “robust hope”—hope grounded in reality and hard work, not naive optimism.
Australia has come a long way in early childhood education over the past decades. We’ve achieved so much, and we need to celebrate that. Moving forward, we should aim for a distinctively Australian vision of high-quality, universal ECEC that resonates with our families, children, parents, and educators. I believe we’re well on our way.
Michele Carnegie: We are often asked, “Is there an example somewhere else in the world where this works?” The answer is often right here in Australia. We have the solutions within our communities.
Professor Deb Brennan: Absolutely, we do.
Michele Carnegie: Finally, Deb, what are you most proud of from this inquiry?
Professor Deb Brennan: That’s a lovely question. I’m proud that the Productivity Commission report puts children front and centre. The pillars of quality, inclusion, and access are very child-focused, as are the recommendations. I’m also thrilled that the report emphasises the importance of community input, particularly in expanding supply in areas of need. It’s not just about placing services but engaging communities to find out what they need and value. This community-focused approach is essential, and I’m proud to see it reflected in the report. It’s something we can build on.
READ THE INQUIRY REPORT