Wednesday, 13 November 2024

Keysborough South Community Hub

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (19:06): (924) It is great to join the adjournment and ask a question of the Minister for Children, and the action I seek is for the minister to update my community on the progress of the Keysborough South Community Hub, which will have an additional 123 places for kindergarten. The Keysborough South Community Hub is a wonderful partnership between the City of Greater Dandenong and the Victorian government. It was a Building Blocks grant a little while ago, $3 million from the state government, that helped enable this critical project. It will deliver, in addition to those 123 kindergarten places, long day care and children services, and specialist consulting suites. It will accommodate maternal and child health appointments and allied health services, and there will also be meeting rooms, a library and a community garden.

Anyone who knows and visits the Keysborough South community absolutely loves and cherishes this local area. From the Keysborough Gardens Primary School that we are upgrading as part of stage 2 redevelopment works – $5.34 million has been invested – to the planning works that are underway for an upgrade to the Keysborough CFA, we see investments across our area that have supported Keysborough South for a number of years. I can say – and I have said a number of times – the traffic improvements in Keysborough South that have been achieved by a project like the Mordialloc Freeway taking substantial pressure off Governor Road, off Springvale Road, and connecting local roads have made the lives of Keysborough South residents better over time.

All that investment, all that support is going into this area that was a growth corridor of the City of Greater Dandenong. It was just over a decade ago that Keysborough South was established. I remember as an adviser at the time to our federal member for Isaacs Mark Dreyfus going along to the opening of Somerfield estate back in 2012–13. What has come to be with the more than 15,000 people that call Keysborough South home is a thriving, interconnected community that love and appreciate one another – great diversity and a real exciting place to be.

Where I see Keysborough Gardens Primary School established, it was a Labor government that delivered that under the former member for Keysborough Martin Pakula. That opened up a few years ago. It was an outstanding contribution, and more than 450 students go through that school now. So across early childhood education, across primary education, in our emergency services and the emerging families and people who choose to move into Keysborough South, they know that an Allan Labor government is delivering for them each and every month of the year. I am really keen to get an update from the Minister for Children on the progress of the Keysborough South hub, its redevelopment and the kinder places that will be offered and provided as part of this significant redevelopment in our patch.