Thursday, 27 August 2026

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (17:20): (1809) Speaker, with your indulgence, I have noted a lot of hugging and kissing going on up there and decided you have either got engaged or you are retiring from Parliament. And I would place on the record my thanks and that of the Nationals to you for your service and your commitment and your time as Speaker as well. I wish you all the best for the future.

My adjournment matter this evening, though, is for the Minister for Education, and the action I seek from the minister is to finally do something about the Mirboo North stadium at Mirboo North Secondary College and primary school. This is something I am raising literally in the last couple of weeks of the term, because I have raised it so many times. I have written to so many different ministers and have not got anywhere on getting this stadium replaced. The stadium is shared. The primary school and secondary school are on the same site and they share the stadium. It is the only stadium in town, so it is used by the community as well. Whether it is Mirboo North basketball, the footy club, the yoga or the various martial arts clubs, they use the stadium as well. It is the only stadium in town. But it dates from the 1970s, and whilst the member for Hawthorn and the member for Bulleen will say, as I do, that that is not that old, it actually is that old, unfortunately. It is more than 50 years old now, and this stadium is in dire need of replacement. It does not have the required run-off areas. It has got a concrete floor with vinyl over the top, so it is not safe for the community. The toilets, perhaps in spite of the efforts of the schools – they have done a great job trying to tart them up a little bit, but they are pretty disgusting, the change rooms and toilets, and frankly the whole thing needs bulldozing and replacing. In a perfect world we would probably keep the existing facility and expand to a new stadium and use the existing facility for gym and other indoor activities that the schools could use. That may or may not be available, but this is something that does need to be done. Mirboo North has had a tough time over the last couple of years, particularly after the storm that hit the town and in fact damaged part of the school – not the stadium, but part of the school – back in 2024. We lost around 20 homes and there was certainly some significant impact.

I know the Minister for Community Sport came and visited the school with me in the aftermath of that, so she understands. But the problem we have is that the Department of Education owns this facility, and the shire will not do anything because it is an education department facility. The Minister for Community Sport cannot do anything because it is not their facility. They could potentially provide funding, and certainly we hope they would do so, but I need the Minister for Education to direct the department to replace this facility and make sure that Mirboo North has a decent stadium going forward.