Wednesday, 13 November 2024

South-Eastern Metropolitan Region schools

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:34): (1281) My adjournment matter is for the Deputy Premier in his role as Minister for Education, and the action that I am seeking is for the minister to provide an update on how round 2 of the Building Fund for Non-Government Schools is supporting some non-government schools across Victoria. The Allan Labor government is supporting funding that helps schools build new campuses and upgrade and expand their existing spaces. This will help school communities to deliver better learning outcomes for their students. The fund is helping a great school in my electorate, Hillcrest Christian College, to build a multisports gymnasium for its senior precinct. It will include three courts, storage and car parking spaces. Melbourne’s south-east, an area I am very proud to represent, is growing rapidly, with some areas such as Clyde North growing at an estimated 50 per cent growth rate since the last census results alone.

These investments will ensure that schools in this area are able to keep up with population growth, and it does come on top of the previous announcement made for Clyde Grammar in the area as well. The children of this state are the future of this state, and this is a government that is investing heavily in schools that will equip the next generation of Victorians with the best opportunities possible to learn the skills needed to grow into productive members of our community. Indeed my electorate has been the beneficiary of many other government investments in our future Victorians, with countless kinders, new public primary schools and new public secondary schools and, as we are here to discuss today, support for non-government schools, which are an important part of our school network as well.

With the demand for sport in the area being particularly strong and indeed with the demand for basketball at an unprecedented rate in the City of Casey – I am sure it is quite soon to take over as the heart of our nation’s community sport, basketball, a title we look forward to snatching off those in other parts of the east – it is very exciting to see what these three courts will also mean for local community associations, including the Casey Basketball Association, who will also be able to benefit from this significant investment. So the action that I am seeking from the minister is an update on how the Building Fund for Non-Government Schools is supporting non-government schools in my electorate.