Wednesday, 8 March 2023

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:35): (72) My question is to the minister for early childhood. Under the government’s three- and four-year-old kindergarten program, six lead sites have been chosen in the City of Monash. These sites will require $24 million in capital upgrades, of which just $12 million will be provided by the Victorian state government, and I therefore ask: why has the government left a $12 million black hole to be funded by Monash ratepayers when it claims that its program is fully funded?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Minister for Environment) (12:36): I thank Mr Davis for his question, which is quite interesting, to say the least. When you consider the government’s $14 billion investment in early childhood and of course our nation-leading three-year-old kindergarten and 50 pre-prep early learning centres that we will be delivering in areas that have got a deficit of childcare places, we are doing a power of work – and when you consider the significant announcements that we have made about how we will be supporting not only the sector but local government, who are a very important partner for the government in this program. We are in active conversations with every council across the state about what their forward demand is for kindergarten places and what their infrastructure needs are to match that demand.

I take issue with the way in which Mr Davis is characterising these issues. We are absolutely committed to continuing to work with all of our local government partners, including Monash, to make sure that families can send their children to a fantastic, funded, free kindergarten program in their local community in facilities that are fit for purpose. If Mr Davis would like to provide some actual evidence for what he is suggesting in the house today, I am sure I would be able to specifically answer those issues. But to come in here and just throw around unfounded allegations in a situation where the government is providing record support to this sector is, quite frankly, pretty typical of Mr Davis’s approach to his role in this place.

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:38): That is an extraordinary answer from the minister, given that there were government and non-government MPs present at the briefing last week. I asked a series of questions about these matters, and these were the figures that were provided to me and all at the briefing by the City of Monash. Figures calculated by the City of Monash show the government’s expansion of three-year-old kindergarten in Monash will require $70 million to fully fund the required capital upgrades. Will the government provide all of the $70 million, or will it require a co-investment from the council to fund another multimillion-dollar black hole?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Minister for Environment) (12:39): Nice try, Mr Davis. The government is in very productive conversations with all of our local governments right across the state. We have a number of Building Blocks partnership agreements that we have struck with individual councils, which are all about agreeing on what the priority infrastructure projects are in early childhood and all about what proportion of that the government will support and what proportion of that providers and local government authorities will provide. These are detailed discussions that are going on at council level. I have to take issue with Mr Davis coming in here and asserting that somehow we are leaving people in the lurch. Nothing could be further from the truth. I think that this just demonstrates where the opposition are at at this point in time.