Desperate LNP reannounces former Labor Govt’s early learning programs

Media Release

Shadow Education Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said the Premier’s re-announcement of the former Labor Government’s early learning programs showed his Government was out of ideas.
Dr Lynham said the Premier must explain why he’s now refocusing on reading programs, after his Education Minister in 2012 said they were cut because they were only introduced by Labor “so that the former Premier could have a good media opportunity."
“Today’s re-announcement shows how shallow this Government is. They’ve run out of ideas after just two and a half years in office,” Dr Lynham said.
“Why would the Education Minister allow the Premier to announce this policy if its nothing more than a media opportunity?"
“If they do believe its good policy, why were these programs cut in the first place?"
“It’s clear this is just a political strategy that will allow the Premier to launch yet another multi-million dollar advertising campaign at taxpayers’ expense."
“This is just the start of what we can expect to see from the Premier and the LNP in the lead-up to the next election."
“They will rebadge the former Labor Government’s policies which they cut, and re-announce them as their own."
“And they’ll tag on more and more multi-million dollar ad campaigns for good measure."
“They know they cut too hard and too fast, and they know the former Labor Government’s policies, particularly on education under Labor's 'Flying Start' initiative, had our state heading in the right direction."
“Once again, this is all about the Premier’s personal political strategy, rather than what’s in the best interests of Queenslanders.”

*Estimates 2012
Ms PALASZCZUK: The Pyjama Foundation provides support to children in foster care. I move on to the cuts to the Ready Readers Book for Bubs Program. It is a fact that one-third of Queensland children are not regularly read to at home and Queensland children are behind the rest of the country in this regard. Can you explain why you have cut the Ready Readers Book for Bubs Program and can you explain what the program did?

Mr LANGBROEK: I thank the honourable member for the question. Once again, it is another one of the measures that we discontinued that will save us about $133,000 in program expenses. We said that we wanted to ease the cost-of-living pressures for Queenslanders and to refocus the resources on front-line services. So we took the decision to cancel the Ready Readers Book for Bubs Program. There is no doubt that this was a program that was brought in at the former Premier’s behest. We of course want our children to achieve quality educational outcomes. It actually did not have a funding source. The important thing was that it was more money that the government had to find so that the former Premier could have a good media opportunity.