Thursday, 6 March 2025

Ministers statements: early childhood education and care

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:20): I rise to update the house on how the Allan Labor government is giving a kinder kit to every child starting three-year-old kindergarten in 2025. Last week I was delighted to attend Early Learning Victoria Muyan in Sunshine, along with the member for Laverton, to officially open the new centre and to unveil this year’s kinder kits. Early Learning Victoria Muyan is one of the four government owned and operated childcare centres to open this year, offering long day care as well as three- and four-year-old free kinder.

It was wonderful to meet the children and families who have started their early learning journey in the beautiful new facility in Sunshine and to see firsthand the children enjoy their new kinder kits. Not only are we building early learning and kinder facilities right across Victoria but we are directly supporting families with the cost of living, with 70,000 children set to receive their free kinder kits this year. Kinder kits ensure that all children can enjoy the benefits of free kinder, with engaging activities that set them up for a lifetime of learning. In this year’s kinder kits children can get creative with playdough, draw with crayons, play with stacking blocks, plant alfalfa seeds and practise reading with stories from Australian authors. This year’s kits also double as a backpack, which can be opened into a felt playing surface for imaginative play.

Since 2022 the Labor government has given 227,000 families kinder kits – just one of the ways that we are bringing families together by encouraging an interest in their child’s learning. Every item in the kits is recommended by education experts to support learning through play. More than 50 Victorian businesses have contributed to the kits since 2022, with products made, designed or printed in Victoria, written by a Victorian author or produced by a Victorian business. Kinder kits are part of Victoria’s Best Start, Best Life reforms, which are transforming early childhood education, saving families money and supporting parents and carers to return to work or study if they choose.