Tuesday, 12 May 2026

 Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (14:05): Last night the City of Stonnington voted to purchase a site at 131 Union Street, Windsor, home of the Windsor Community Children’s Centre, from Swinburne University and offer the cooperative a new lease to continue to operate the much-loved childcare and early learning centre. This is a fantastic outcome for the local community, but most importantly it is a win for the children, who will continue to have a warm, wonderful, nature-filled early learning environment for years to come. It has been a tough couple of years for all the parents and staff at the centre, who have faced ongoing uncertainty since Swinburne announced its intention to sell the site. I want to congratulate all of the parents and the community advocates who never gave up the fight. Their dedication and passion have been extraordinary.

The Victorian government has continued to support the Windsor Community Children’s Centre. The recent state budget just last week committed $279,000 for vital upgrades to the centre – improvements for the kitchen and other associated areas. Recently the Minister for Finance approved Swinburne selling the site at below market value, an important step in securing this community asset. Given Swinburne were gifted the site for free by the previous government, I reckon a sale price of $8.4 million is a fair and reasonable outcome – an outcome that would never have occurred without the commitment and support of the federal member for Macnamara Josh Burns, who secured $4.3 million from the federal Labor government to support the sale. I want to thank the mayor Cr Sehr and Crs Hely, Hopper, Klisaris and Humphries, who all voted for this great outcome.