This proposal has two components that relate to the National Partnership Agreement on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education, which determines Commonwealth, state and territory funding for preschool attendance. The current agreement concludes at the end of the 2020 calendar year.

• Component 1 would make preschool funding for four-year-old children ongoing and would provide free access for up to 600 hours per child per year across all preschool settings from 1 January 2021. The current state-to-Commonwealth funding ratio would remain unchanged.
• Component 2 would provide ongoing preschool funding to allow free access to preschool for three-year-old children for up to 600 hours per year across all preschool settings from 1 January 2021. The current state-to-Commonwealth preschool funding ratio would also apply to three-year-old children.

The proposal would also provide $100 million of capital grant funding to provide extra capacity in places of need, evenly distributed across 2019-20 and 2020-21.