Tuesday, 29 August 2023

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Kindergarten funding

Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:06): (249) My question today is for the Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep. Minister, local councils say that your botched free kinder funding model is causing kinder cuts and closures. A senior source from Mornington Peninsula Shire Council has raised the alarm regarding the cost imposition your reforms have placed on their municipality. They now need to stump up over $50 million to upgrade almost 30 facilities. How many councils will require upgrades to their kinder facilities to accommodate your so-called free kinder model?

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Minister for Environment) (12:07): I thank Dr Bach for that question. It does give me an opportunity to again outline for the house all of the different ways in which the Andrews Labor government is supporting local government and indeed the MAV as their peak body as we roll out our nation-leading early childhood reforms. Members would be aware that the previous state budget has $1.8 billion for the rollout of the Best Start, Best Life reforms, including $1.2 billion for infrastructure. Our government has been highly responsive to the MAV and to local government partners when it comes to increasing the funding available for local government to roll out the infrastructure that we know they will need based on the unmet demand for three- and four-year-old kinder and pre-prep right across the state.

Firstly, for new and expanded infrastructure we have significantly increased our Building Blocks capacity grants and infrastructure grants to councils. All three grant categories have increased to local government by at least 60 per cent on top of the previous rates, with some of the streams as much as 166 per cent. For instance, the state government contribution for a two-room early childhood learning facility has increased from $1.5 million to $4 million, and those grant amounts are scalable depending on the number of kinder rooms that are provided. We also fully deliver modular kindergartens and cover the full costs of those modular builds, and our government also continues to deliver the kindergarten infrastructure that we know we will need right across the state to the tune of $1.2 billion, so to try to characterise this as the government not supporting local councils is, quite frankly, laughable.

Secondly, we have provided more funding to local government for planning. They can access Building Blocks planning grants of up to $150,000, because we recognise that it takes a lot of resources for council to plan for these infrastructure projects.

Matthew Bach: On a point of order, President, I have been listening to the minister for some time now, and her contribution has been of interest. Nonetheless, the question was a narrow one regarding how many councils will require similar upgrades. She is providing some broadly relevant content regarding what the government is seeking to do, but she has not gone near answering that question. Time is of the essence. If she could be asked to come back and actually answer the question, that would be very useful.

The PRESIDENT: The minister is being relevant to the question.

Ingrid STITT: Thank you, President. Thirdly, we have also been assisting local government with upgrading ageing infrastructure as we roll out the Best Start, Best Life reforms. Dr Bach might actually be interested to know that there have been over 490 infrastructure upgrades delivered by our government as part of these reforms, and we are only just warming up. We have got more work to do, and we have got $1.2 billion worth of infrastructure funding that we are rolling out together with councils right across the state.

Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:10): Again I do thank the minister. Minister, how much will ratepayers have to fork out for upgrades as a result of your botched free kinder program?

The PRESIDENT: It is related, but I think in asking the minister about any form of increase to ratepayers, I am not too sure if that is her responsibility. I will let you rephrase it, Dr Bach.

Matthew BACH: Thank you, and I entirely accept what you say, President. The intent of the supplementary was to deal with the cost-shifting according to senior sources at Mornington Peninsula Shire Council that I spoke of in my first question. So perhaps I could put it that way: how many costs will be shifted to ratepayers in order to upgrade facilities due to your botched free kinder program?

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Minister for Environment) (12:11): I take issue with Dr Bach characterising free kinder in that manner. It is an absolute game changer for families right across the state. It means that cost is no longer a barrier for three- and four-year-olds participating in kindergarten. Many of those families would not have had access to kindergarten had it not been for the government’s free kinder. Can I just remind Dr Bach again, for the umpteenth time, that the free kinder levels of funding that our government is providing significantly uplift the amount of revenue available to councils by about 40 per cent on average. The $1750 per child per year versus the $2500 per child per year that the government is providing does actually represent a significant uplift in funding for local government. That is something they do not even argue with. This is a fantastic policy, and we are very proud to be supporting it.