“The pre-prep element of Best Start, Best Life has been revised to a 15-year infrastructure program with an overall program completion date of 2036-37.”

Last year’s budget said the staged rollout would “allow time to grow the necessary workforce and infrastructure, and to get ready to run expanded programs”. Pre-prep will eventually double the number of subsidised hours, from 15 to 30 hours, that is offered to four-year-olds in Victoria.

The rollout will still begin next year in six regional local government areas Ararat, Gannawarra, Hindmarsh, Murrindindi, Northern Grampians and Yarriambiack – but this will now begin at 20 hours and gradually increase to 30 hours over two years.

The staggered launch will not begin in regional centres Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo until 2033, and 2034 for metropolitan Melbourne, where subsidised hours are now expected to gradually increase to 30 hours by 2036.

The reforms were jointly announced in June 2022 by then premier Daniel Andrews alongside the then NSW premier Dominic Perrottet, to save every family up to $2500 a year per child.

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“These massive reforms are about setting our kids up for the future and investing in women – who for far too long have had to do far too much,” Andrews said at the time.

“These are big changes, but they just make sense – giving our kids the very best start in life and delivering early education and care that actually works for families.”

Under that announcement, all children would eventually get 600 hours of three-year-old kindergarten and 1200 hours of pre-prep.