Thursday, 16 September 2021
Adjournment
Brighton electorate schools funding
Brighton electorate schools funding
My adjournment is directed to the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is for the minister to stop politicking with Brighton kids and direct funding to needy schools in my community.
The Victorian School Building Authority provides a particularly helpful feature on their website. It’s called ‘Projects in my Area’.
The feature is one that many in my community have used recently.
When using the feature in the southern region, the map shows one thing—the state Labor government has carved out Brighton and Hampton, and starved the suburbs of education funding.
The suburbs look like lonely orphans on the project maps.
Government funding should not be political—especially when it comes to schools.
But, under this state Labor government, it is.
You don’t need to rely only on the departmental map, you can also look at the facts.
The facts show that 93 of the last 113 upgrades to metropolitan schools have been directed into Labor seats.
These facts prove that the Labor government has directed money into schools in Labor seats on five out of six occasions.
That’s no accident. It’s pork-barrelling by design.
Yet we have needy primary schools, like Brighton Primary and Hampton Primary—where our children have been neglected.
Neglected solely because the state Labor government has refused to fund school improvements because of the suburb where the school is based.
Imagine being a minister that neglects children because of the politics of a suburb.
And I say to my community, I cannot force the minister to give a green tick to needy projects in our community.
You know, and the facts show, what Labor is doing.
But what I can do, on your behalf, is use Parliament to let the minister know directly that we see what he is doing.
We know he is giving our schools a red cross because they are in Brighton suburbs.
He is saying ‘No’ to your kids because of a postcode and ignoring their genuine need.