Early Childhood Development
The First Thousand Days
Every Child Deserves A Fair Start, Not A Postcode Lottery.
The first thousand days of a child’s life — from conception to age two — shape their brain, their body, and their future more than any other period. What happens in that window doesn’t just affect the child. It shapes the kind of adults, workers, parents, and citizens they become.
Yet Australia chronically underinvests in this period, the one where the return on investment is highest. Every dollar spent on quality early childhood support returns between $7 and $13 in reduced costs across health, justice, and welfare over a lifetime.
This isn’t sentiment. It’s the most rational investment a country can make.
We propose universal antenatal and postnatal support, genuine paid parental leave, free early childhood education from age one, properly paid educators, and intensive support for vulnerable families, delivered with dignity, not surveillance.
Because a fair society doesn’t start at kindergarten. It starts before a child draws their first breath.
Full policy detailS coming soon. We’re doing the work — properly.
What We're Getting Wrong
Before Rome. Before Greece. Before Egypt built its first pyramid, people were living, trading, navigating, and governing across this continent.
Australia talks constantly about productivity, innovation, and workforce readiness. But we chronically underinvest in the single period of life where the return on investment is highest.
Early childhood educators, who do some of the most important work in the country, are among the lowest-paid professionals in Australia. Paid parental leave remains inadequate for most families. Postnatal support is rationed to those flagged as at-risk rather than offered universally. And access to quality early learning is still determined largely by where you live and what your parents earn.
A fair society doesn’t start at kindergarten. It starts before a child draws their first breath.
The Evidence
WeRise does not claim to speak for First Nations peoples.
Every dollar invested in quality early childhood support returns between $7 and $13 in reduced costs across health, justice, and welfare over a lifetime. That’s not an argument for spending, it’s an argument against the false economy of not spending.
The Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman has spent decades demonstrating that early childhood investment delivers the highest return of any public expenditure, consistently, across countries, cultures, and income levels. The earlier the investment, the greater the return.
What We're Proposing
- Universal antenatal and postnatal support for every family — not just those flagged as at-risk
- Paid parental leave extended to 26 weeks at full replacement wage, with 4 weeks reserved for the non-birthing parent
- Free, high-quality early childhood education from age one
- Educator wages restructured toward parity with primary school teachers
- Intensive family support for vulnerable families — delivered with dignity, not surveillance
- Community-controlled early childhood services for First Nations children, grounded in culture and Country
Early Childhood Development & Why It Matters
Early Childhood Development & Why It MattersThe Science
New Zealand's Treaty Framework
The brain develops faster in the first two years of life than at any other time. By age three, 80% of brain development is complete. By age five, 90%.
What happens in those early years, the connections made, the safety felt, the language heard, shapes everything that follows.
The Economics
The First Thousand Days is not a cost. It is the highest-returning investment a government can make.
- $7–$13 returned for every $1 invested in early childhood.
- Lower rates of school dropout.
- Better health outcomes.
- Reduced contact with the justice system.
- Higher lifetime earnings.
The Equity Argument
In Australia today, your postcode is still your destiny.
Children born into poverty, instability, or disadvantage start behind, and the gap widens with every year the system fails to close it.
Universal early childhood investment is how a fair society levels the field before the race begins.
First Nations Children
Self-determination starts in the first thousand days.
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, culture is not a supplement to development — it is the foundation of it.
Community-controlled early childhood services grounded in language, culture, and Country deliver better outcomes than any imposed program.
This Policy is pat of WeRise's Foundations of Dignity
The First Thousand Days doesn’t stand alone. It connects to how we fund healthcare, how we support mental health, how we house families, and how we design our education system. A fair start requires a fair society around it.
Explore the full WeRise platform @ WeRise
Read the Heckman Equation @ heckmanequation.org
Explore Early Childhood Development @ Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Discover more @ The Lancet’s Early Childhood Development Series