Thursday, 24 September 2026

 Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (12:41): (2654) My constituency question is for the Minister for Children. The Labor government’s landmark Best Start, Best Life reforms are delivering life-changing benefits for regional families across Eastern Victoria by expanding access to free kindergarten, rolling out additional hours of free four-year-old kinder and investing in modern early childhood infrastructure. In the South Gippsland shire, our local communities are seeing the direct benefit of these investments, including state-funded projects like the new government-owned Meeniyan Early Learning Centre, which I attended with the minister, and the Leongatha Early Learning Centre, alongside expanding and supporting services across Korumburra, Foster and Mirboo North – and more to come. Minister, could you please provide an update on how the Best Start, Best Life infrastructure, investment and workforce programs are currently supporting local families and early childhood educators across the South Gippsland Shire Council area? Free three- and four-year-old kinder changes lives. It is an investment in an entire generation. It gets parents back into the workforce and supports our incredible early educators. We cannot have the Liberals making cuts to three- and four-year-old kinder and early education.