Wednesday, 4 March 2026

 Alison MARCHANT (Bellarine) (19:09): (1564) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Children in the other place. The Bellarine is certainly still growing, and demographics are changing, where we have got more families coming into the area. With that comes an increased demand for childcare and kindergarten places. Local families have been contacting me, calling for more early learning centre places, ensuring that their children can access that high-quality early education close to home. At the end of last year, though, we did announce a very exciting step – an early learning childcare centre in St Leonards, and it will be next to the St Leonards Primary School, and this centre certainly is there to meet that demand that I have talked about, and it is going to make a difference. But the action that I seek now is that the minister visit the Bellarine and see firsthand the incredible early learning childcare centre in St Leonards and also have a discussion around the needs of our growing community.