Tuesday, 4 February 2025

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (14:47): (951) My question is for the Deputy Premier as Minister for Education. As the Deputy Premier is aware, by now thousands of families across Victoria have taken advantage of our government’s $400 school saving bonus. I want to take this moment to wish all families in the Laverton electorate a warm welcome back to school for 2025. I would also like to mark the first-year anniversary of Bemin Secondary College, Truganina’s first high school, as well as Warreen Primary School, which we built and opened last year. As students come back to school, the time has come for a lot of folks in our community to grapple with the cost of schooling their kids. It is why this bonus is our signature cost-of-living relief measure. We are talking about new uniforms for growing kids, new textbooks for the new year, graduation costs and even camps and excursions that may pop up throughout the year. My question for the Deputy Premier is: how many of the more than 4000 students and their families in the Laverton electorate who are eligible for the school saving bonus have taken advantage of this incredible cost-of-living relief?