Melbourne kinder in jeopardy after state rejects plea to buy site

The fate of the centre has become a political issue in the looming federal election. It is located in the state seat of Prahran, recently wrested at a byelection from the Greens by the Liberals, and the marginal federal seat of Macnamara, held by Labor’s Josh Burns.

Burns and his Greens challenger in Macnamara, Sonya Semmens, and new state Liberal MP Rachel Westaway last month urged the university to drop its bid to rezone and sell the land.

The Greens have accused Labor of “wringing their hands of any responsibility”. The party has announced a $12 million pledge to save the centre, but that would require the state government’s approval.

Burns on Saturday said he would continue to work with anyone and all levels of government to find a way to keep the centre open.

“The state government was responsible for gifting their land to Swinburne, and we need their help to save this wonderful centre,” he said.

Windsor Community Children’s Centre’s Sam Vale said the letter from the department came as a shock, but the community remained hopeful it could find a solution. She said the board planned to meet with Premier Jacinta Allan on Monday to discuss its future.

“The demand we know is coming, and we know what happens when these huge sites and parcels of land that are for public use get sold off. Then, in a few years’ time, all of a sudden, there’s a big need,” she said.

Dale Martin, whose two-year-old loves the centre so much she never wants to leave, said anything other than a financial commitment from candidates for the seat of Macnamara was “basically just political gaslighting”.

“They need to provide financial commitment to save the centre and that’s what we need from the federal candidates,” Martin said.

The kinder is the last piece of property Swinburne owns in the area after it moved operations to Hawthorn. The university said that after the state government and council declined to buy the site, it was seeking to proceed with the sale.

“The proceeds … will go to educating our tens of thousands of higher education and vocational education and training students as well as advancing our world-leading research in areas like sustainability, medical technology and space,” it said.

A Stonnington Council spokesperson said it supported the Windsor Community Children’s Centre staying on the site until it was developed by a future buyer. The council said it would work with the state government to ensure children had access to high-quality early education.

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The looming sale of the land also highlights the growing pains of the Allan government’s flagship free kinder program, which will fund up to 15 hours a week for three- and four-year-old kinder, plus up to 30 hours a week for pre-prep. Many council- and community-run centres say the state government’s funding for the program does not cover their increased costs.

Infrastructure Victoria recently warned that close to 900 new kindergartens will have to be built in the next 12 years, at a cost of $17 billion, to keep up with demand.

The program has put a rocket under enrolments across the state, particularly in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, but brought many community- and council-run centres to their knees.

Demand for early education is acute in the north, west and south-east growth areas of Melbourne, where private and not-for-profit providers are less likely to invest, the state’s infrastructure authority body said.

With Noel Towell

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