Thursday, 18 June 2026

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:49): I rise to update the house on how the Allan Labor government continues to deliver our nation-leading Best Start, Best Life reforms, helping all little people live happy and healthy lives and achieve their full potential. Last week I joined the member for Cranbourne Pauline Richards in the other place to announce that we will build a brand new kindergarten to support the growing communities in Cranbourne South and Clyde. This kindergarten will include four rooms, providing up to 237 places for local children. It will be located just around the corner from Clyde Primary School, making drop-offs easier for busy families and supporting children to have a smooth transition to prep.

Our government has now invested over $170 million to deliver 79 new and expanded kindergartens in the City of Casey, creating over 3700 kindergarten places. And we are not stopping there. Communities in the south-east are some of the fastest growing and the youngest in our state. Families living in these communities need a government that backs them and that gets on with delivering the infrastructure and services that they need, both now and in the future. That is why we are delivering 11 kindergartens on school sites in Casey, making life easier for busy families. It is why we continue to provide free kinder, which those opposite have written to me asking for the right to charge fees for, for three- and four-year-olds, with more than 40,000 children in Casey having already benefited from free kinder, the second-highest number of any LGA in the state. It is why we built Early Learning Victoria Laak in Hallam and why we have committed to building two more ELVs in Cranbourne and Hampton Park, Lynbrook. It is also why we delivered the brand new Murrumbek Casey early parenting centre, an important investment that provides free specialist support for young families. It would be worth noting for the house that in the City of Casey alone we are investing significantly more in early childhood infrastructure than those opposite invested across the entire state of Victoria when they were in government. That is the difference between a government that plans for growth and an opposition which, with their $40 billion cuts, would leave families behind. Only a Labor government can be trusted to deliver for children and their families.