Polwarth electorate
Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (12:51): (1861) My question is to the Minister for Education. Can the minister please tell the people of Winchelsea and district when its review on secondary school zoning will be complete? The families, people and students of Winchelsea have been left this year being zoned to the township of Bannockburn, some 160 kilometres return round trip each day to and from school. There are no public transport connections and no provision in the immediate or short term to provide buses for students wishing to get access to state education in the Winchelsea area. The last 100 years has seen students going to and from Colac or Geelong, where buses currently exist, and these buses are no longer available for the students of Winchelsea. In fact the department told one family, when they said it was not possible to drive the 160 kilometres, that the mother should give up her job and devote her time to driving her children to school—a totally inappropriate response.