00:00Alisha McAway would be a different person if she hadn't sent her two daughters to this
00:07kindergarten.
00:08I'd be probably a mental and emotional wreck, yeah, we've been through a lot of hard times
00:20as every family has.
00:22Excited?
00:23Yes!
00:24Both girls have autism.
00:26When Liliana first started here, she barely spoke.
00:29How hard they put in to get them all school ready, nearly brings a tear to your eye.
00:38We know that without that relationship, children fall through the cracks, families fall through
00:44the cracks and this might be the first safe place that they've ever really had.
00:51These people are fans of the Victorian Government's free kinder program.
00:55The fact that all families can access an early childhood program, no matter what their
01:00financial status, is amazing.
01:03Free kinder for three and four year olds was supposed to double to 30 hours a week over
01:07the next five years, but yesterday's budget revealed that won't happen until 2036.
01:13The Government's plan to build 50 early learning centres has also been delayed.
01:18It's already happening in rural Victoria, it's already happening in many parts of metropolitan
01:23Melbourne.
01:24We've had to take a more gradual roll out.
01:27We need an additional 11,000 educators.
01:30It's not the only hurdle free kinder has faced.
01:34This community based kindergarten in Melbourne's east used to charge $4,000 a year for its
01:39three year old kinder program.
01:42Under the changes, it's now out of pocket more than $1,000 per child.
01:46We've had to ask parents to donate toilet paper and tissues and we've also had to cut
01:51back our cleaner from five days down to three days.
01:55They're calling on the state government to let them charge a gap fee, like New South
01:58Wales does.
01:59If we're unable to charge parents a gap fee, then community based kindergartens will eventually
02:05have to close.
02:06The budget also showed an increase of 10,000 children accessing free kinder this year.
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