Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): My adjournment is to the Minister for Early Childhood. The action I seek is that the minister join me in visiting Westgarth Kindergarten, a wonderful early childhood education centre in my electorate of Northcote. Earlier this month I was able to get in touch with Westgarth Kindergarten centre manager Doug Fargher to share the wonderful news that the Andrews Labor government is granting the kinder $48 900 to refurbish their outdoor playground area. This is a kinder which sits within a school campus, Westgarth Primary, and they have been doing an incredible job providing quality early childhood education on their small footprint. As you will appreciate, in inner-urban areas every square inch counts, so the centre’s outdoor undercover area and outdoor play spaces are very important to them. Yet when it rains the outdoor undercover area leaks and cannot be used, and the tired deck and sandpit are in need of repair to make sure they stay safe and accessible for the children. Now, thanks to our Building Blocks grant, these upgrades are going to be delivered. It is all part of our work to make sure our littlest Victorians have access to better facilities and get the best start in life.

Many young families choose to call the Westgarth area of Northcote home, with its leafy streets, great local schools and close-knit community. Over the past two years I have enjoyed working closely with the Westgarth community on the issues that matter to them, and education is right at the top of that list. Over the past year we have been able to secure over $1 million in critical maintenance funding and a new inclusive play space at Westgarth Primary. This funding for the early childhood centre builds on that work and is a great outcome for local Westgarth families, but bricks-and-mortar upgrades are only one element of the great work this government is doing when it comes to early childhood education, because we are also making groundbreaking reform, like introducing universally subsidised three-year-old kindergarten, and we are rolling out school readiness funding that for the first time is allowing centres to tap into experts to support children’s development. In the last round of this funding Northcote kinders received close to $400 000, which they can use for things like speech and occupational therapists, language and literacy experts and child psychologists. At the same time we are investing in our early childhood workforce and encouraging more people to become early childhood educators, including through free TAFE early childhood qualifications.

The upgrades we are delivering at Westgarth Kindergarten will make a big difference to my community. I would welcome the opportunity for the minister to join me to celebrate this grant as well as hear from our local educators and our local Westgarth families about what is important to them.