Tuesday, 5 March 2024

Eastern Victoria Region

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (13:01): (714) My constituency question is to the Minister for Children in her role with early childhood education. The Willow Grove Kindergarten currently operates in the rear of the Willow Grove community hall and has done so for 40 years, with regular enrolments of about 20 kids a year. The hall is a shared community facility, and it is run by a voluntary committee. The kindergarten currently is run by the Y, which also rents the hall from the service three days a week. On the days when the kinder does not run it is used as a community space for funerals, playgroups et cetera. With the government’s policy to double kinder hours over the next decade to 30 hours a week, this actually means that the kinder will not be able to be run in that hall and therefore there will be no kinder in Willow Grove, full stop. What my constituents are asking is: will the minister meet with a delegation that will come to Parliament House to discuss the virtues and where a new kinder will be in Willow Grove so that there is a sustained presence of a kinder in that town?