WA Labor announces Country Week Assistance Program, commits to halve costs of country week for schools

WA Labor has promised to halve the costs of getting high school students to country week as part of an $8 million package to support regional schools for the sporting events. The $8 million investment would provide funding to schools to help with attendance costs for the twice yearly event, which is attended by more than 4000 regional students across the senior high schools in June and district high schools in September. Schools more than 300km from Perth will receive $500 a student while those within 300km would receive $250. Last year, Albany Senior High School’s costs were around $1000 a student. Albany father-of-two Ben Killey said halving costs would make a big difference for regional families. “It’s a great experience for them and a rite of passage by all means,” he said. “A lot of families can’t send their kids because of the cost being such a big hurdle, and everyone living in the country knows how expensive travel is, and it’s definitely not getting any cheaper. “Having that extra funding will enable families who might not have been able to afford to send their kids to country week to say, yes we can do this, you can go.” Minister for Sport and Recreation David Templeman said the funding would give regional families some relief amid cost-of-living pressures. “These initiatives will see hundreds of dollars going back into the pockets of Albany and Great Southern families,” he said. “Albany and Mount Barker are famous for sending some magnificent teams to Perth, and we want to assist families in making sure their kids can get to country week every year.” Albany MLA Rebecca Stephens agreed, fondly recalling her own experiences raising money to attend country week. “Sport and country week is in our Albany DNA so it’s great families and students will be supported further when they head to Perth to compete,” she said. “I was speaking to a teacher the other day and he said there will absolutely be more students who will be able to get there.”