Scullin MP Andrew Giles will fight for federal funding to be restored to a Thomastown Aboriginal early-learning centre when Parliament resumes in Canberra this week.
Funding from the National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Early Childhood, directed to the suburb’s Bubup Wilam for Early Learning hub, will cease on June 30.
Last Tuesday, Mr Giles and opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Shayne Neuman met Bubup Wilam chief executive Lisa Thorpe at the Main Street centre to discuss the possible impacts of the loss of funding.
“For me, Bubup Wilam is almost short-hand for government intervention at its best. People are really benefiting from this kind of community control,” Mr Giles said,
Neither federal nor state government 2014-15 budgets cover the operational costs of the childcare and parenting service, throwing the centre into crisis mode.
Ms Thorpe said no one wanted to see the centre go, but there had been no cash commitments.
“It’s very clear there’s no commitment coming from the Commonwealth for funding,” she said.
A spokeswoman for the Victorian Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development, Wendy Lovell, said the state government was undertaking modelling work to identify options for ongoing and sustainable operation of Victoria’s two Aboriginal children and family centres.
