Tuesday, 3 February 2026

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (18:00): I rise to update the house on how the Allan Labor government is continuing its significant investment supporting children and families to access kinder in 2026. This year we have 24 kinders opening on school sites across the state, and we have 15 more planned to open in 2027. We know that co-locating kinders on school sites helps children get the most out of their early learning. They make drop-off easier during the morning rush for families, and significantly, they make the transition to school smoother. It also helps ensure there is sufficient kinder capacity for communities, at the same time providing new and modern kinder facilities for children to learn, play and grow in. As well as kinders we have 14 Early Learning Victoria childcare centres opening across Victoria this year. This follows the four centres that opened last year. These government owned and operated centres provide affordable child care as well as three- and four-year-old kinder. They include critical community infrastructure, such as maternal and child health and playgroup rooms.

We are not only supporting access to early childhood education through infrastructure investment. In 2026 pre-prep has become available in 12 new local government areas, and this means another 3000 children at 130 services are eligible for up to 20 hours of kinder per week. Our government also continues to support vulnerable children and families, and this year up to 25 kinder hours a week are available to priority cohort children no matter where they live. In practical terms this will help more than 5000 children, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children from a refugee or asylum seeker background and children who have had contact with child protection. It will enable those children to access more hours of kinder. We are continuing to ensure that all children are entitled to free kinder, supporting with cost-of-living pressures. Free kinder now saves families almost $2700 a year. This is all part of our nation-leading $14 billion Best Start, Best Life reforms, which are transforming early childhood education. We know how important early learning is for each child’s development and for the lifelong benefits it brings, and it is only this side of the house that is reforming early childhood education, matched with record investment.