Thursday, 7 March 2024

Kialla West Primary School

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (12:40): (460) My question is for the Minister for Children. On Friday the minister announced that Kialla West Primary School will be the site of a new kindergarten built on the campus. The school is home to the most dangerous school crossing in Victoria, with children navigating the Goulburn Valley Highway morning and afternoon each school day. The crossing was the site of a horrific collision when a vehicle occupied by a school family was struck by a truck during school pick-up. Minister, what consultation did you or your department undertake with Kialla West Primary School, specifically the leadership, the school council and the wider school community, prior to making the decision to establish a kindergarten at the school?

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:41): I thank the member very much for her question. As we were just talking about in discussion in relation to the bill that is currently being debated in the house, the consultation that occurs when we are looking for where we are rolling out the infrastructure for our Best Start, Best Life reforms from our kindergartens on school sites and upgrading kindergartens through to our new 50 government owned and operated early learning centres is indeed extensive. We consult with the community. We consult with the school. We look at where there is the greatest unmet need in terms of being able to ensure that children for their first 1000 days are getting the best start to life.

We know that an important part of that is co-located services, which is kindergartens on school sites. This provides the amazing opportunity to ensure that we can provide a kindergarten where there is also a school, where we can then ensure that families can build those connections and those communities within that kindergarten and school environment and that will lead to improved school readiness over time as well. The extensive consultation that does happen and the planning and strategy that the Department of Education undertakes is broad. It looks at unmet demand. It looks at other factors as well.

In relation to the queries that you raised in relation to roads and road safety, I can undertake to have those discussions with the minister responsible for roads and road safety, but that should not undermine the very objective of ensuring that where there is the opportunity we co-locate services. We know that families do not work in silos and neither should government. There should be early education, there should be maternal and child health and there should be the other support services that assist families and children located together so that families can not just ditch the double drop-off but can ensure that in one place they are better connected to the services that help their children develop and grow.

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (12:43): I thank the minister for her reply. This will lead on from that. It has been nearly six years since the collision at the crossing, the physical and emotional effects of which are still felt by the family involved, yet no permanent safety upgrades to the crossing have commenced, let alone been completed. The only real solution is to build a pedestrian underpass under the Goulburn Valley Highway. Considering the new kindergarten could mean more than a hundred new families attending the site and using this crossing, will the minister commit to working with the roads and education ministers to get this underpass constructed to keep the students, families and motorists safe?

The PRESIDENT: I think the prime responsibility for that supplementary question would be with the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, but I will allow the minister to answer as far as her consultation with them goes.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:44): Thank you very much, President, and again I thank the member for her question. Without undermining the very principle that we are operating by here, which is the co-location of services for the betterment of child development and also ensuring that we are building education facilities and maternal and child health facilities and service delivery for the entire family, that is the principal objective in terms of being able to deliver kindergartens on school sites. But certainly on the substantive matters that your question goes to about roads and road safety, I am more than happy to ensure that those elements are included in the consultation and to discuss those matters with the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, who would be able to more directly respond to your actual request.