Wednesday, 15 October 2025

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (19:39): (1342) My adjournment tonight is to the Minister for Education, and what I request the minister to do is to finally provide funding for the ace hall for St Kilda Primary School. St Kilda Primary School has run a huge campaign. I know the member for Albert Park is here, and hopefully she will get on board. I know the member for Prahran has done so much tireless advocacy on this – they want a hall for all. This is a fantastic document that has been put together for a multipurpose hall for the school and the community. The Victorian government must urgently deliver the hall for the community that St Kilda Primary School has missed out on.

In 2020 the Victorian government demolished the St Kilda Primary School hall and still has not replaced it. Since then students have had no indoor space for PE, assemblies or school events. They are literally having their assemblies out in the rain. All other schools have got this kind of facility. This is a growth school, a school that has the lowest amount of open space. Only 5 per cent of the school is open space.

Most of the people living in the area do not have backyards; they live in apartments. This is the opportunity to give them a hall, to give them some space, and ultimately, for one of the most popular schools in our area, to finally deliver what they are missing out on. We know that at the time we had a number of people, over 200 people, participate in a rally. We have had 440 enrolled schools get on board with this. There are 3800 petitioners in here that signed the petition that wanted to get on board. And I want to particularly pay tribute to Caroline Thornton, the school president, who brought her kids down to help advocate for this. I know they are very passionate. We must deliver this hall. The school has had their hall demolished by the government; it is time that the government rebuild it. It was a promise by the government to do this and the government should finally deliver it. I call on the Minister for Education to finally deliver a hall for all.