No one in Australia should be doing 380km preschool round trips (2024)

Parents, I have a question for you. How far is too far for the school or childcare run? Ten kilometres? Twenty kilometres - depending on traffic? What if I told you parents have been driving 190km each way just so their daughter can have a day a week at preschool?

This is the reality in Ti Tree, Northern Territory, which only just last year had funding confirmed for its first childcare centre, thanks to the community's tireless advocacy.

In the meantime, the mum who shared her story with us knows attending early childhood education will do wonders for her daughter's development and school-readiness, so she was willing to sacrifice the time and cost of a weekly 380km round trip to Alice Springs.

But many others do not have that option. And really, they should not have to.

Access to early education should not depend on where a family lives, how flexible parents' work is, how much money they have, or whether they own a car.

But under our current system, it does, and it is hurting rural kids and families, especially in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

There is also a flow-on effect for entire rural communities and economies. Mums - as primary carers usually are - want to get back to work, and their employers are begging them to do so.

But without childcare, they are locked out of the workforce, and the shortage of nurses, teachers and other essential workers in country towns persists. As does the gender pay gap.

Providing accessible early education and care also supports more effective funding and programs in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

As an example, allocating billions for new housing would be a much better economic generator in remote communities if it was supported by care options for local workers.

Even when a town does have childcare and preschool options, cost is a huge barrier. It is no secret we are in a cost-of-living crisis, but childcare fees have been rising faster than inflation and wages for years now.

Cultural safety is also a barrier. Early childhood services that are designed, run and managed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for their communities are critical.

They are trusted services with strong links to their community, which boosts enrolments and attendance. They also help children learn about, and take pride in, their culture. The centres often provide wraparound services and supports for the whole family.

Which takes us back to Ti Tree, in the Northern Territory. The town's first childcare centre will be federally-funded under the CCCFR model, community-led, and not-for-profit.

It will finally address a need Australia's market-led model of early childhood education is failing to meet.

Namely, providing services in "thin markets" - places where the population is low, or people do not earn much, and private providers have no incentive to set up shop because they are unlikely to turn a profit.

If hearing children referred to as a "market" to earn a profit off makes you squirm, it should. Education is a basic human right, and the Prime Minister has consistently referred to his government's commitment to make early childhood education universally accessible and affordable.

I applaud that, but now it is time to put some meat on the bones of that promise.

SNAICC, the national voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, is one of more than 50 organisations calling on the federal government to take six key actions to improve early learning and care in regional, rural and remote communities.

Stronger public management is key to this - rather than relying on the market alone - and stronger funding models for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled early childhood services are a crucial piece of that puzzle. These funding models must address the particular barriers that are blocking Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families from accessing early childhood education and care.

The federal government also needs a workforce strategy to ease the mammoth struggle to recruit and retain educators in rural areas, including training pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aspiring educators to train on-Country.

The government's budget commitment to a wage rise for early childhood educators is welcome and long-overdue, but we need to know more about how much wages will rise, and when. Extra incentives for rural educators would help ensure it is not just the cities that benefit.

Organisations representing a broad spectrum of rural interests are all in lockstep on this, from the National Farmers Federation and the Regional Australia Institute to The Parenthood and the United Workers Union.

Together, we represent industry, workers, families, service providers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and more. Our message is clear: access to early learning should not depend on your postcode. Country kids deserve better.