Wednesday, 29 October 2025

 Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (10:18): I rise this morning to make a contribution on the 2025–26 budget estimates report from the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. I would like to, at the outset, acknowledge the fantastic chair of PAEC the member for Laverton. Who have we got? I think the member for Point Cook is in the room and the member for Yan Yean is as well. I do not think the member for Mildura is here, but I am sure she makes an amazing contribution.

The 2025–26 budget delivered for Victorians a responsible budget, returning the budget, as we know, to a $600 million surplus, but it also delivered the things, the services and the infrastructure that Victorians need. It also includes $3.3 billion worth of savings and efficiencies, because we went into this budget round saying that we would deliver a responsible budget from an economic point of view but one that also delivers for all Victorians. I will go into a little bit more detail on how it does that. On top of delivering that budget surplus, the first one since the COVID pandemic, and delivering on Victoria’s fiscal strategy set out by former Treasurer and former member for Werribee Tim Pallas, the budget also delivered in spades, as – since I have been in here anyway – most budgets have for my communities of Tarneit and Hoppers Crossing and I think for the outer suburbs more broadly.

We saw significant growth areas infrastructure contribution allocations as part of this budget for infrastructure, for transport and for community assets, but we also saw a huge investment into education in the outer suburbs. In my electorate we have a pretty new high school, Brinbeal Secondary College, which is in its second year of operation at the moment. To give you a little bit of background about Brinbeal Secondary College, in my view – and I checked this with the Minister for Education – in terms of public secondary school infrastructure it is as good as you will find anywhere in the state. It is also a brilliant school under the tutorship of principal Simon Haber, but the infrastructure is absolutely amazing. It is a beacon in terms of education in my electorate of Tarneit.

Frankly, kids in the west deserve nothing less than a world-class education with world-class teachers but also world-class infrastructure, and that is what Brinbeal provides my community of Tarneit, particularly those around the new Tarneit West and Riverdale areas. In this budget Brinbeal Secondary College has the funding to deliver its second stage – $83 million to deliver the second stage of Brinbeal Secondary College. It will obviously increase capacity so more people in the surrounding area can take advantage of the school, but it will continue to deliver the world-class educational infrastructure in Tarneit that residents deserve. This second stage will include two learning neighbourhoods, a visual arts building and also a sports oval to be able to deliver a PE program.

But we did not stop there in terms of education in the outer west. The Grange P–12, with two campuses in Hoppers Crossing, also received a share in $10 million worth of planning money. In 2018 we delivered a capital works upgrade for the secondary campus of The Grange, and now they have planning money to be able to plan an upgrade of their primary campus – streamlining their learning, their sports academy and their STEM academy from those late years of primary school into secondary college and having the facilities to be able to do so. As I said at the outset in respect of this report, this is a budget that was responsible and that delivered what Victorians need.