Tuesday, 25 August 2026

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:27): I rise to update the house on the Carroll Labor government’s latest Building Blocks partnership. Last week I joined member for Western Victoria Ms Tierney and the member for Lara in the other place to announce a new Building Blocks partnership with the City of Greater Geelong. This now marks 21 Building Blocks partnerships that our government has agreed with local councils and the non-government sector to fund a pipeline of infrastructure projects and deliver new kinder places. Through this latest partnership we are investing an initial $18 million to build two new children’s hubs: Lauderdale Court Community Hub in Armstrong Creek and the Lara West Community Hub. Together these centres will provide up to 510 new kindergarten places for local families and include space for maternal and child health consultations and community services. Importantly, children at these centres will be able to access free kinder, an initiative of this Labor government which is now saving families more than $5000 per child across their kinder journey.

Free kinder is a winner for Victorians. It supports every child to have the best start in life. It helps parents and carers get back to work or study, and it puts money back in their pockets. But do not just take my word for it. Let me share with the house a few reflections on our free kinder program. Three-year-old kinder is a terrific idea. I could not agree more with free three-year-old and four-year-old kinder. It is a good policy, and I recognise that early education is extremely important for our young, developing kids. I thank the member for Narracan and the member for South-West Coast for their reflections on this important Labor policy. In fact so popular is free kinder that I have been asked to, and I quote, ‘fast-track the free kinder program’. I thank Mrs Hermans for her suggestion, but it is difficult to fast-track something that already exists. In the future she might want to run her support for free kinder past her leader first, because it is the Leader of the Opposition who has written to me advocating for kinders to be able to charge fees – to cut free kinder. The Leader of the Opposition wrote to me asking to charge fees and cut, therefore, free kinder. Chaos and cuts from those opposite; some things never change.