The education minister has asked the Auditor General to conduct an audit of a disability programme, following an ABC investigation. The program helps children with disability attend early education, but the administration of the scheme has raised serious concerns about transparency, and potential conflicts on interest.
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00:00Funderburg Daycare Director Leonie Arnold has always tried to create a space for all
00:07children to learn.
00:09A good 10 to 20 per cent of children will need support in some way to meet their developmental
00:14milestones.
00:15They'd been relying on the government's Inclusion Support Program to help fund additional
00:20educators to work with children with disability.
00:23We're just not able to access the funding as we have in previous years.
00:28An ABC investigation recently revealed the Education Department had allowed one operator,
00:34KU Children's Services, to approve grants to other childcare operators, totalling over
00:40half a billion dollars.
00:42In November, questions were raised during Senate estimates.
00:45But the payments weren't reported publicly as required.
00:49The department said this was because they weren't officially considered grants.
00:53What we heard in Senate estimates was a complete lack of transparency, a complete lack of willingness
01:00to explain how those funds were being expended.
01:03The day after the ABC published its investigation, the Minister for Early Childhood Education,
01:09Anne Arleigh, wrote to the Auditor-General asking she consider looking into the program.
01:14The Productivity Commission also made recommendations about the program as part of plans for broader
01:20changes to this sector.
01:22Child Service providers say they could be waiting years for those reforms.
01:26The people who miss out the most are our little children, often those with disabilities and
01:30with additional needs, who need a fully inclusive environment for them to succeed.
01:34The Auditor-General says she's considering the Minister's request to audit the program.