Tuesday, 27 May 2025

Adjournment

Lowan electorate early childhood education

Emma KEALY (Lowan) (19:00): (1161) My adjournment matter is for the Premier, and the action I seek is for the Premier and the Labor government to immediately secure funding for the By Five Wimmera Southern Mallee Early Years Initiative. The By Five program is a very important program for supporting children in some of our most vulnerable communities across the Wimmera Southern Mallee. This project was originally initiated through the Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Partnership. We have heard so much from the government over the years about how important these regional partnerships were in listening to the local community and making sure that we are delivering for what the people need, and what our community said very, very clearly was that we need more supports for children in those first five years.

The By Five project was initiated to support children between zero and five years of age. Over the past eight years that we have seen funding driven towards By Five, we have seen this project develop and we have seen the outcomes locally. More than a thousand children have been supported through this program. There are around 200 health professionals that have been supported through this program – this is for teachers and it is also for health professionals. We have seen the connection with local women and families and children into tertiary health systems. We have seen that children who would otherwise fall behind, who would not be able to get an appointment and who have waited for months and months, if not years, to seek those appointments, have been able to get those supports immediately.

This is not just for children from zero to five years, it is also for the mothers. There is no antenatal care between Horsham and Mildura, and By Five are seeking funding to secure and deliver those important antenatal services. They are also looking at funding to secure the specialist support that has been provided by the Royal Children’s Hospital, but recently the funding conditions have amended and they are no longer eligible in my local region.

This project is amazing. I commend the work of all of the people who have been involved with By Five. It includes Jo Martin, Cara Miller, Emily Smith, Hannah Purcell, Tracey King and the fabulous researcher Cathy Tischler, who did an amazing job in actually measuring the benefits that this program delivers. It has been peer reviewed, and it shows that this should be funded if you support families and support children. Dr Felix Ritson, who has been an amazing advocate for the benefits for the children from a health perspective, actually says himself that this program has saved lives. It is a mere $3.5 million over the next four years. I urge the government to look through every single pocket of the budget that they have, because we simply cannot afford to have this program scrapped. It will make a significant difference and a terrible difference if you do not fund By Five.