Press conference - Perth

TRISH COOK, MEMBER FOR BULLWINKEL: Thank you for joining us here this afternoon, and welcome to Greenmount Primary School. It's right here in the hills of the new Federal seat called Bullwinkel. I'm Trish Cook, I'm the local Federal Member for Bullwinkel, and I have with me today some special guests.

Senator Jess Walsh, Minister for Early Childhood Education. We've got local member, State Member Steve Catania MLA, and of course the local hero, the principal of Greenmount Primary School, Natalie Astle. Thank you for coming, everyone.

I'm going to hand over to Jess to say a few words about the great announcement here for this area, for this school, which is a real growth area in this neck of woods. JESS WALSH, MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: Thank you so much, Trish, and thank you for welcoming us to your beautiful community. It's great to be here at Greenmount Primary School.

We're all here because we know the value of quality early childhood education. We know that it gives children a great start in life, and that it helps families thrive as well, and that's why we're announcing today a $28 million Commonwealth contribution to build four new early learning centres across WA, including right here at Greenmount Primary School. Here at Greenmount Primary School it's a $5 million commitment from the Commonwealth Government, the Albanese Labor Government, and we'll be building a new not‑for‑profit‑led early learning service here at the school.

It will create 40 new early learning places, and it will support children and families for generations to come. Trish Cook, the local member here, has been a huge advocate for this project, and we thank and congratulate Trish for all of the work that she's done with us and with the Cook Labor Government to deliver this project. It's really important to us that this new not‑for‑profit early learning service is co‑located at Greenmount Primary School.

We know early education is great for kids, it helps them grow and learn and develop, and even more so when it's co‑located with primary school, because it helps kids have a smooth transition through to the big school that they're already part of, and co‑locating early learning with schools is also great for families, it helps them balance that early morning juggle, get rid of the dreaded double drop‑off and have a smooth one‑stop drop.

This agreement with the Western Australian Government, a $38 million commitment combined, is part of our $1 billion Building Early Education Fund. We want more children in more places to get the benefits of early childhood education because we know it's a game‑changer for children and for families. Together we have committed 41 services across the country with our State and Territory counterparts, we're building new services in the places where families need them most, because we want more children to get the benefits of quality early childhood education.

And I now hand over to the local member, Steve Catania. STEVE CATANIA, STATE MEMBER FOR MIDLAND: Thank you, Minister. It's wonderful to have you here in Western Australia, and can I also acknowledge Trish Cook, my Federal colleague, who's a wonderful advocate for the school community in our area, and also Natalie Astle who's the superb principal here at Greenmount Primary.

Can I just say that we all know that early education establishes the building blocks for a good quality education and having early education centres like this co‑located at the wonderful Greenmount Primary is a game‑changer. Can I just say that this also a wonderful example of Federal and State Governments working together to deliver a wonderful project, and what it means for our local community is local people can spend their whole schooling life at the wonderful Greenmount Primary before they go through to senior school.

It's wonderful for the kids, it's great for the parents, and this is an exceptional commitment, and I'm very happy to be the local member where this is happening. Thank you.