KickStart for Kids

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:35): I rise today to speak about KickStart for Kids and to congratulate them for their amazing advocacy and support for South Aussie kids. KickStart provides something like 60,000 breakfasts and 10,000 lunches each week to kids in SA. Over 360 schools form part of their program and they have a team of about 1,000 volunteers who assist them in that cause.

Since commencing their Period Poverty campaign in 2021, they have also managed to reach schools that are in need of period products, delivering something like 2,000 packets of period products to those schools each and every month. Acting President, last week, we celebrated World Menstrual Hygiene Day and I thank you again for your contribution to that. In the lead-up to that, there were a number of events that I took part in and key announcements which I will canvas today.

I want to start with KickStart's amazing event last Friday: its annual fundraiser, an annual fundraiser that we say we wish we did not need to have. In so doing, I want to start by thanking Ian and Georgie; Oli and Billie; KickStart's chair, David; the ambassadors, Rebecca Morse, Jenna with the Pink and Matilda Scholz; Belinda, Claudia and Kiara; and National Pharmacies, the major sponsor. There are collection boxes in 37 National Pharmacies across the state collecting products for KickStart.

I want to thank Libby and her team, who hosted an amazing event and, of course, my special guest to that event, the Minister for Education, the Hon. Blair Boyer, for his support and attendance at that event with me. It was a sensational event with a very serious message and we managed to raise a lot of money to support KickStart and the amazing work they do in period poverty.

We are also really lucky to now have 10 of Adelaide's private schools on board: Walford, Wilderness, Loreto, St Paul's, Westminster, Seymour, Cabra, St Dominic's, St Michael's and Rostrevor College. I have been visiting those schools with the other ambassadors, and with Ian, and talking to their students not only about the need to address period poverty, and in my case gender equality and universal access, but bringing home to those kids how many of their peers in their communities do not have access to things that we take for granted each and every day. That started from one school in 2021 and we now have about 10 on board, which is amazing.

In relation to the work that KickStart does—and I guess this is how I started last week—nobody asked Ian and his family to do what they do. He did not need to do what they do, but they saw a need amongst our South Aussie kids and they acted. That is the kind of person Ian is and he has done exactly the same in relation to period poverty as he has done previously in relation to making sure that kids get the meals they need at breakfast and lunchtime.

On the same day, I was really pleased and proud to stand with Minister Boyer and make an announcement about TAFE SA and their commitment to ensuring that period products will be universally accessible across their campuses and the government's contribution of $300,000 to contribute towards dispensing machines and the products that will go with those machines to ensure universal access across those schools. There is a lot of work that has been going into this behind the scenes. It also comes off the back of a very quiet announcement that was made by Minister Picton in relation to accessibility to period products in our hospitals for those who are visiting.

These are all small steps but really significant and important steps towards universal access to period products in South Australia. We have seen it being done elsewhere. We know we can do it here. There is a bill in this place which seeks to address that, but I just want to take this opportunity from the bottom of my heart sincerely to say I love everyone at KickStart. I love what you do and thank you sincerely on behalf of all of us for looking after so many kids in SA.