Wednesday, 28 August 2024

Schools funding

Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:30): (1099) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education. In 2014 then opposition leader Andrews pledged that if elected Victorian number plates would bear the slogan ‘Victoria – The Education State’. The press release said that:

Under Labor, education will be more than just a word – it will be a rock solid foundation for our economic future.

But under Labor education is not a solid foundation of our economic future. Schools across my electorate, particularly in Glen Waverley, are being told that the state has no money and that schools will not get critical updates, upgrades and necessary repairs. At Camelot Rise Primary School in my electorate, in Glen Waverley, unit D floors are unsafely uneven. Last year an air conditioning unit fell through the ceiling onto the floor of a classroom with children in it due to repeated water leaks and plumbing issues. In unit B, if the air conditioners or heaters are turned on at all, teachers and students cannot hear each other. Toilets at the school are falling into disrepair. The oval is reminiscent of the Somme, it is missing a goalpost and it is of too poor quality to even host the school carnival. The lack of infrastructure investment is an indictment of this government and the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) for their lacklustre efforts across Glen Waverley. Labor are failing our children.

John Pesutto and I had the pleasure of visiting Glen Waverley Primary School last week, where again the school facilities were past their use-by date. Many of the classrooms are too small, they use a corridor as an improvised library and the school had to pay for its own STEM room. In 2014 we – the Liberals – promised to entirely rebuild the school, but this was not matched by the Labor Party, and the children of Glen Waverley Primary School have been left behind in substandard facilities. Labor cannot manage money, and Victorians and schoolchildren are paying the price. The action I seek from the minister is to urgently review the infrastructure funding to schools – public and independent – across Glen Waverley and review the performance of the VSBA, which seems to act more as a middleman taking a cut than as an enabler of improved facilities, and ensure that our local schools are made fit for purpose.