Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mole reflected:

But it was good to think he had this to come back to, this place which was all his own, these things which were so glad to see him again and could always be counted upon for the same simple welcome.

Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows is a children's story loved by generations. At Wind in the Willows Early Childhood Education in Bassendean and Ashfield, however, there is unrest.

The Town of Bassendean, in the face of great community opposition, wishes to sell the service to a not for profit provider. I attended a community meeting held to protest this decision just last Friday, together with my state colleague, MLA Dave Kelly, who is also a champion of this centre. We strongly asked the Town of Bassendean to listen to the community and to defer the decision of the special council meeting on 31 March to allow further options to be explored. The community representatives there—people like Sarah Quinton—were very clear that they're open to looking for ways forward, be it selling it to a not-for-profit provider or having a community board set up that actually allows them to look at the governance and compliance. This is a centre which exceeds the standards and a threshold that is met by only 28 to 31 per cent of not-for-profits, and by only 13 to 16 per cent of for-profits. The community want to keep this as a community service, ideally. If it has to be sold, at least give consideration to other options being put by the community.

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