Wednesday, 4 March 2020

Winchelsea secondary education

Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (19:12): (1980) My adjournment debate this evening is for the Minister for Education. The action I seek from the minister is for him to ask the Department of Education and Training to call and host a community meeting in the township of Winchelsea to discuss the future planning and arrangements of secondary education for that community and also to put in place a temporary zoning for that community that fits with community needs.

The minister this week announced that he was revisiting the zoning for the township of Winchelsea in light of a large community petition and much public debate on social media and elsewhere. The minister announced that the schoolchildren of Winchelsea could now attend school in Geelong, as they have for the last 150 years. So it was a very gracious decision on his behalf to do that. However, that still does not tell the whole story in Winchelsea.

Winchelsea is an unusual country town in that it is approximately 45 kilometres from Colac, Bannockburn, Geelong, Lorne and Torquay—all of which have secondary school options, but depending on where you live and what you do in Winchelsea, traditionally families have chosen one of those five communities that sits in proximity to work and family pressures that happen in that town. We now have a situation that while some students can continue to go to Geelong, of course there are those existing school buses that transport students to Geelong, which from the minister’s decree this week still does not work for those students. Of course, most importantly, the minister has refused to grandfather families to schools that they have already chosen. So we still can have the real possibility for Winchelsea families of elder siblings being accepted at one school and subsequent children not being accepted at the others. This is a clear problem, and it is a lack of genuine commitment by a government that says it cares about the Education State.

Long term, Winchelsea is predicted to have a population similar to the size of Colac. Colac currently supports two secondary schools. It is important that the planning is put aside now, as rapid housing development and other pressures start to descend upon the township of Winchelsea. It is the perfect time for the department to make that call on where the best spot would be for that school and set the land aside now, where it is more affordable for the taxpayer but also gives the community confidence that the government is in fact thinking about their needs and planning for the future.

So in the short term it would be much appreciated if we could have a facilitation by the department in clarifying what the zones are. Basically the community is calling for a dezoning of that community, as it has been now until this year. It is a system that has worked well. It does not cost taxpayers extra and it serves the community. (Time expired)