Cost of living was once again the focus of election campaigning today in Western Australia with both major parties pledging to make life easier for young families. Labor committed to a return of its popular student assistance payment while the Liberals have promised to "revolutionise" early childhood health services.
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00:00Political point scoring.
00:06WA Labor on the hustings with the return of a popular family favourite.
00:13The WA Labor government, if re-elected, will roll out once again the WA school assistance payment.
00:19The second round of the payment would allow parents to claim $150 for every kindergarten or primary school child
00:26and $250 for high schoolers to help cover the essentials.
00:30But this time it's going to make sure families know about the payment before the deadline to apply rolls around.
00:37We're adding more funding into the administration of this scheme, in particular for schools up north
00:42where we saw a take up not as high as we'd wanted.
00:46Labor also promising a $37 million expansion of its school breakfast program into more schools and for five days a week.
00:54This means that every young West Aussie who needs to have a full belly when they walk into the classroom at the beginning of the day
01:01will have an opportunity to do so.
01:03But the Liberals were on the attack too, criticising Labor for paediatric wait times.
01:08Right now in metropolitan Perth, primary school aged children are waiting nearly two years to see a paediatrician,
01:15nearly two years to see a clinical psychologist and over ten months to see a speech pathologist.
01:21It's pledged a $110 million early childhood health package to address nine key areas,
01:28including additional ADHD support in schools and an investment in mobile allied health clinics.
01:35Appealing to young families as the March poll approaches.