Wednesday, 1 May 2024

Keysborough Gardens Primary School

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (19:20): (630) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety and Minister for Local Government, and the action I seek is for the minister to ensure the Department of Transport and Planning work with the City of Greater Dandenong council to assess the safety of the site and potential interventions around Keysborough Gardens Primary School to support the safety of our kids. Keysborough Gardens Primary School is a wonderful school in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It was opened in 2020 and has grown to have more than 400 students – 430 students at recent count – and it is estimated over time that the school will grow to around 650 students. It has people that moved directly into Keysborough South to make sure that they get the best education and outcomes led by principal Sherri Jenkins. This is an outstanding school – some of the best leaders, some of the most inclusive and supportive educators and education support staff. Anyone that visits the school on the tour is inspired when they hear from student leaders of the journey of their learning and outcomes and what has been achieved.

But we want to make sure that safety at our schools is always paramount, and anyone that has been through Chapel Road, Homeleigh Road, Abercrombie Avenue or Cunningham Parade knows that this is a congested area. They have got one crossing supervisor that at times looks after two particular intersections, and for years the community has called for an assessment of safety and upgrades through here. After trying for an extended period of time with the City of Greater Dandenong council, we took a petition to the community, and the response has been overwhelming. Thousands have engaged with our call for safety improvements and upgrades, and hundreds have put their name to a petition that asks for the basics to keep our kids safe, to make sure that they have the safest passage into their school so parents, grandparents and guardians have the confidence that their kids can walk, ride and access our school safely. We need that assessment and that work to be undertaken, and I am calling on the Minister for Roads and Road Safety and Minister for Local Government to instruct the Department of Transport and Planning to make those assessments, to engage with our local community and to hear the calls for the community to be consulted and engaged. That is the basic ask any constituents or any residents put forward.

I want to again give a big shout-out to principal Sherri Jenkins, her principal leadership team and Sharna Woods, who is the school council president. They have been leading this charge for an extended period of time, and it was the community that campaigned for a school to be established in Keysborough South. It was a community that stood up and campaigned for Keysborough South community hub. When the going gets tough or where there are things that need to be done, it is the Keysborough South residents that stand up and get on with it and advocate for that. It is a privilege to join with them, to share their views and the values and to ask for those safety improvements to be considered and for every available option to keep our kids safe and to make sure they have the safest passage into school, into their place of learning to be accessed.