Consultation Paper – Towards the Development of a National Agenda for Early Childhood (2003)

Overview

SNAICC Response: Consultation Paper – Towards the Development of a National Agenda for Early Childhood is a crucial early policy paper that captures SNAICC’s vision for a nationally coordinated approach to improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in their early years. Published in 2003 and authored by Julian Pocock, the paper was developed in response to the Australian Government’s consultation on a proposed National Agenda for Early Childhood and brought together the perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family services from across the country.

The submission was informed by extensive engagement with SNAICC’s national membership and shows the organisation’s growing involvement in early childhood education and care policy. At a time when early childhood development was emerging as a national policy priority, SNAICC argued that any national agenda must recognise the unique experiences, strengths and rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and communities. The paper emphasised that improving outcomes for children required more than investment in services alone; it required recognition of culture, self-determination, strong families and the ongoing impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

A significant contribution of the submission was its challenge to mainstream approaches to early childhood policy that often overlooked Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives on child development. SNAICC argued that children’s development is shaped not only by parents and formal education systems, but also by extended family, community, Elders, language, culture and Country. The paper called for a broader understanding of child wellbeing that reflected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child-rearing practices and recognised cultural identity as a fundamental component of healthy child development. This emphasis on culture as a protective factor and a core outcome of early childhood policy foreshadowed later national conversations about culturally safe and culturally grounded early childhood education and remains central to SNAICC’s early years advocacy today.

Many of the ideas advanced in this submission anticipated major reforms that emerged over the following two decades. Its call for a coordinated national approach to the early years was reflected in the 2009 National Early Childhood Development Strategy and the development of the Early Years Learning Framework, Australia’s first national early childhood curriculum framework. The recommendation for an Indigenous Children’s Report Card foreshadowed later developments in national reporting and accountability, including Closing the Gap targets and other frameworks designed to measure progress in child development and wellbeing. Similarly, while the proposed National Indigenous Child Welfare and Development Council was never established in the form envisioned by SNAICC, its principles of partnership and shared decision-making are reflected in contemporary structures such as the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy Partnership under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.

Today, this submission stands as an important record of SNAICC’s early leadership in shaping national early childhood policy. Many of the priorities it identified in 2003, including culturally grounded early childhood services, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership in decision-making, workforce development, community-controlled service delivery, data and accountability and sustained investment in the early years, have since become central features of policy and reform efforts. The paper reflects SNAICC’s long-standing commitment to ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children grow up healthy, strong in culture and supported by their families, communities and Country.