Thursday, 12 September 2024

 Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (18:20): (845) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Children, and the action I seek is that she fund volunteer-run kindergartens and early years management organisations equally. The Minister for Children wrote to my constituent recently, proudly speaking about the increased funding to early years management, EYM, organisations – an impressive 40 per cent increase over three years. These EYMs, such as Y Kinders and One Tree, have received this significant boost because it has been acknowledged that their costs have risen – and rightly so. However, what was left unsaid in that response was the glaring inequality of how our volunteer-run kindergartens are being treated. While the EYMs benefit from both the per-capita funding increases and the additional base funding, volunteer-run kindergartens are left with only a meagre 2.5 per cent annual increase – well below inflation. Over the three years the minister referenced, EYMs have seen a funding increase by 40 per cent while volunteer kindergartens have only seen a 7.5 per cent rise. What this means is that parent-run committees, which manage these volunteer kindergartens, are not just involved, they are critical to the fabric of early childhood education, particularly in rural and regional Victoria. In many of these areas volunteer-run kindergartens are the only providers of kindergarten and child care.

Commercial operators simply cannot break even, even with the equitable funding that exists, yet year after year we see EYMs getting more base funding while our volunteer kindergartens are forced to make sacrifices and find savings that are just not there. This creates a deep and personal impact. Parents who are already stretched thin feel as though they are flailing. They wonder why their costs are going up and their funding is shrinking. Today I stand here not just on behalf of these volunteer-run kindergartens but on behalf of the children and families who rely on them. I call on the minister to address this funding imbalance, to recognise the invaluable contribution of these volunteer-run kindergartens and to ensure that they receive the funding they deserve.