Wednesday, 5 March 2025

 Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (19:07): (1045) Wandin North Primary School is a fantastic local primary school in my electorate, getting ready for their harvest market in a few weeks time. I am very excited to again attend and support this harvest market. However, the school’s infrastructure consists entirely of old portable classrooms that are no longer fit for purpose for the more than 300 ‍students who attend the school, meaning students and teachers do not have the 21st-century learning facilities they deserve, and there is not adequate access for students with a disability. It is just more evidence that this state Labor government penalises students based on their postcodes. Despite being in power for 10 years, the Labor government have failed to properly plan and upgrade their own schools and assets due to their inability to manage the state’s finances.

The main concern I wish to raise today is that there is no fit-for-purpose shelter-in-place building that can adequately house all the students and teachers at Wandin North Primary School in times of emergency – something that, unfortunately, in our community in the Yarra Valley we do have to be prepared for. Principal Paul Bailey has shown me the Building the Education Revolution building that is the school’s current nominated shelter-in-place, which is the only building that can fit all Wandin North Primary School students and teachers in the one place – at a squeeze. But in this BER there is no running water and no toilet, making it not satisfactory or suitable should there actually be an emergency such as a bushfire or severe storm that the school community needs to be able to shelter from.

So the action I seek from the Minister for Education is to allocate sufficient funding in the upcoming state budget to build a new permanent building for Wandin North Primary School for STEM and arts, which would double as an actual fit-for-purpose shelter-in-place for this school, with running water and toilets. That is something that these students, their families and teachers deserve: a safe place with running water and a toilet, where they can shelter in times of emergency, and a new 21st-century modern learning environment for STEM and arts. This new building should replace the two 50-year-old portables – that would be a sensible solution that our community hopes this government will finally listen to.

It should not matter what these students’ postcodes are or the electorate in which they reside and go to school. The minister talks the talk. Now it is time for him to walk the walk. It is time for the state government, for the minister and for his education department to take this action and replace at the very least the two 50-year-old portables with a fully funded, modern and fit-for-purpose permanent STEM, arts and shelter-in-place building for Wandin North Primary School and the students there. The Victorian Liberals listened. We pledged $6.6 million for new permanent buildings at Wandin North Primary before the 2022 election, but this Labor government has failed to match this. At the upcoming state budget the minister has a chance to fix it.