Thursday, 20 February 2025

Assyrian Church of the East

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (18:09): (1447) My adjournment is to the Minister for Planning, and the action I seek, once again, is to end the farce and call in the application by the Assyrian Church of the East to build their new school in Yuroke. We have heard about VCAT again this week. Last time I updated this chamber, they had to adjourn their case and come back after a few months because of a certain type of tree. Now, you can think of all the reasons possible why you do not want to have a Christian school in your electorate. It was a certain type of tree. Before that it was traffic. We know they had issues with the traffic it would cause and the intersection, even though they rushed an 8000-home development across the road without council approval and without community support. That will not cause traffic, but it is the school that will cause traffic!

We found out this week that it was not a certain type of tree – in fact the issue at play was not actually the tree. The tree was actually on government land, and they made the church pay for a report to inform them about the tree to assist them with a future upgrade of Mickleham Road that is probably not even coming.

The issues they had this week went to construction schedules, documentation, what bathrooms they are going to look at building, waste management – I mean, seriously. The VCAT member took on board the issues but did not make a decision. The decision has been pushed back to March. Traffic engineers actually conceded to the church points about traffic, but as the VCAT member pointed out, the minister’s representative did not even request this information that they had previously asked for.

The government has put this in the too-hard basket. They have made the church pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. We brought a petition debate to this chamber, where members across the aisle, ministers, gave supportive statements that of course they support them building a school. I assumed that this situation was a bureaucratic overreach, but now I am coming to the view, like many in the community, that this government just does not want a Christian school in Yuroke, a Christian school in the northern suburbs.

It is an absolute disgrace. It is costing hundreds of thousands in legal fees. This school would be such a blessing for the community and preserve a UNESCO-listed, endangered language – the Assyrian language, the original language of Jesus Christ himself. This school would bring the community together. What does the government have against Christian schools? I seek the action of the minister: call this in and approve it for this community.