Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Kindergarten funding

Nicholas McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:08): (405) My adjournment matter tonight is for the Minister for Training and Skills in this place, and it relates to a subject that was raised earlier today, and that is the kindergartens in the City of Knox. I have had the great fortune of living in a number of states in this country of ours, and I think something that I have come to admire and love about Victoria is the great tradition we have of community- and council-based kindergartens, so it was with some alarm, not only this week but in fairness over the last few months, that the council has begun to indicate that the changes in policy – that is, the changes in the government’s policy – might result in a reduction in and in fact in this case almost entire withdrawal from the kindergarten space. We learned just on Tuesday of this week that the council now intends to no longer operate 21 of its 23 kindergartens, commencing in 2025. That has very serious ramifications for some 1100 kindergarten children – very young children, three- and four-year-olds – in the suburbs of Bayswater, Boronia, Ferntree Gully, Knoxfield, Rowville, Wantirna South, Wantirna, The Basin and Scoresby.

These changes – that is, the free kindergarten that has been introduced – are all good and well. This side of politics has long supported kindergarten, as has my good colleague here Wendy Lovell, who did a sensational job when she was the minister herself. However, sadly, there is a very significant threat to these 21 kindergartens. I would ask that the Minister for Training and Skills pick up the phone to Knox council and speak with them, because very clearly, as in a quote that was given by the mayor of Knox City Council just two days ago:

… certainly the changes of the state government’s decision to increase hours and make kindergarten free and that second year have very much been a part of our decision-making.

What is clear to me is that these changes will result in the council now transferring – in essence really privatising – kindergartens and having the private sector come in and perform that function. That can only mean one thing; that will mean higher fees. That will mean greater costs on families at precisely the time they can least afford it. Perhaps what is more concerning, if that is not concerning enough, is that you actually might have the contrary outcome that the policy is seeking to address. That is, you might actually have fewer three- and four-year-olds attending kinder because their parents simply cannot afford it. I would have thought that this was a perverse outcome. I would encourage the minister to pick up the phone and to negotiate, to speak and to understand best what has come into this decision and try the very best to make sure that in actual fact this is not the case and that the council continues to play its role.