Tuesday, 17 March 2020

Yarrabah School

Mr RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (19:10): (2054) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is for the minister to provide an update to my community on when the completion works at Yarrabah School will take place, a $20.5 million redevelopment of our specialist school in Aspendale. There is a pipeline of investment the likes of which we have not seen in our community in many, many years—investment in every school, regardless of their place in our sector, whether it is our Catholic schools, our government schools or our special needs schools. We are supporting every student in our education system to be their very best.

It was a few years ago that I got the chance to first visit Yarrabah School and meet Principal Matthew Harris, and his visionary leadership in specialist education was absolutely outstanding. It inspired me in a commitment that we made to fully redevelop this school and give every student at this school the very best opportunities. I know, Deputy Speaker, you share a passion in this space for capital works and improvements for our specialist schools.

We are on a wonderful journey where just recently we opened up the administrative buildings after completing stage 1. In the next months we will have stage 2 completed, which are the secondary buildings, then the full landscaping and the critical delivery of the hydrotherapy pool, which is something our community is so passionate about.

Think about the investment at Mordialloc College, Parkdale Secondary College, Chelsea Heights Primary School and Parktone Primary School, just to name a few, and down the road there is Edithvale Primary School. We have seen upgrades at Mordialloc Beach Primary School, Aspendale Primary School and Aspendale Gardens Primary School. We have done a master plan for Mentone Park Primary School. A lot is going on in our community. St Brigid’s Primary School has just completed their redevelopment, we are working closely with St Patrick’s Parish Primary School, St Joseph’s Primary School in Chelsea has an upgrade coming and St Louis de Montfort’s School has had a significant upgrade to their classrooms as well.

I have heard those opposite talk about investment in education, saying, ‘Well, you can put money in; it’s not just about putting money in’, but when you see the disrepair that some of these school buildings were in and the fact that it only takes moments to destroy the education system and our schools and leave them behind, well, this is all about investing in our schools and empowering our school communities and supporting our teachers and our communities and increasing school pride. So these are exciting times. Yarrabah is up and about. We cannot wait to get the minister to visit soon, but we would really appreciate an update in our community on where this project is up to.