Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about a deeply concerning and entrenched pattern of behaviour by the Labor government. In Mallee, which is over a third of Victoria, there are many childcare deserts. People have to travel—and I know one who has to travel—200 kilometres a day in order to take their child to child care. This is ridiculous. It's beyond ridiculous. What is worse is this: in 2023, the state Victorian Labor candidate claimed that there would be a $5 million new child care developed in the Loddon Shire—the Loddon Shire is important because there are actually three towns without any child care at all—and that promise was secured for a place called Wedderburn. That facility is almost complete and should be opened very shortly. But what we had in the 2025 election was the Labor candidate announcing another $5 million for a new child care in Loddon Shire. Well, what happened? Suddenly, we have the new minister for child care saying, 'Oh, it actually wasn't a new child care'—actually, she said it was for a new child care, but we found out in this last week that it is not a new child care; it is just mopping up the mess of state Labor's lack of funding for the Wedderburn childcare centre.

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