Tarneit electorate
Ms CONNOLLY (Tarneit) (14:45): (6431) My question is for the Minister for Early Childhood in the other place. Last week I was completely blown away by our government’s announcement of the Best Start, Best Life program. Over the last few years our government has done amazing work in this space, especially with the rollout of three-year-old kinder across the state. We are now building upon that with universal free kinder, a new year of universal pre-prep for four-year-olds and the establishment up to 50 new childcare centres right across our state. In my electorate of Tarneit we have some of the highest proportions of early childhood workers, at least 4 per cent in the Tarneit suburb alone. On top of that, the average family in Tarneit is a 32-year-old couple with two small children. A program like this is tailor-made for this type of family who rely on kinder services. My question to the minister is this: what benefits will this fantastic new program have for families in my community whose children will be going to kinder next year and beyond?