Tuesday, 11 August 2026

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (13:48): I rise to update the house on how the Carroll Labor government is building and expanding hundreds of kindergartens across the state. I recently joined the member for Pascoe Vale in the other place to visit the site of the future Coburg North Primary School kindergarten. This brand new kindergarten will open in 2028 and will have three rooms, delivering 178 new kindergarten places for the local community. Importantly, it will be connected with Coburg North Primary School, which will support children to have a smooth transition to prep and will make drop-off times easier for families.

I am very pleased that this kindergarten is being built on the site of the former Coburg Special Developmental School. Many of us will be familiar with this school and the wonderful education and support that it has provided to students with a disability and their families since 1988. Indeed, as the former member for Pascoe Vale, I was proud to join with the school community back in my first term to advocate for and ultimately deliver more than $22 million in funding to move the school to a brand new site and build modern, fit-for-purpose facilities for these students and staff. Now with the school in a new home, there is a real opportunity to honour the legacy and the important work of Coburg Special Developmental School and build something new in its place: a kindergarten that will serve local children and families for years to come. That is what a Labor government does – backs local families with practical investment that makes a real difference. I remind the house that our government has now delivered more than 100 new and expanded kindergartens on school sites, and we are on track to build more than 30 over the next two years. Children who attend these kindergartens will have access to free kinder, an important cost-of-living initiative, which is now saving families more than $5000 per child across their kinder journey. For families with two or even three children who go through kindergarten, that is a substantial saving that provides meaningful cost-of-living relief, and now those opposite want to rip that support away and allow kinders to charge fees. Labor is giving families a break. The opposition want to give them a bill.