Tuesday, 30 May 2023

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:35): (258) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and it concerns the current bus services for St Augustine’s College, Kyabram, students who reside in Tatura. The action that I seek is for the minister to ensure that dedicated school buses are introduced to cater for students residing in Tatura who attend St Augustine’s College in Kyabram, saving them from the current practice of using the V/Line public bus system to get to and from school each day.

St Augustine’s College, Kyabram is a P–12 Catholic school with a current student enrolment of 800 students. The student cohort at St Augustine’s predominantly comes from the Kyabram township but also other towns in the surrounding area. One such town is Tatura, which is home to 45 St Augustine’s students, and this number is expected to grow by up to 20 new students from Tatura next year. The Tatura students choose to attend St Augustine’s College in Kyabram rather than a school in Shepparton, and this is a testament to the high standards of the school. The bus service to Kyabram also provides the most practical and quickest route for students from Tatura who choose to access a Catholic school education. In addition, Notre Dame College in Shepparton is full and would not have the capacity to accept a further 65 students, and the travel time to St Anne’s College in Kialla, which currently does not offer all year levels, would be considerably longer. With the number of students travelling from Tatura to St Augustine’s expected to rise, it is concerning that there is no school bus service available to them.

I have recently been contacted by a year 8 student who resides in Tatura and who detailed the current transport arrangements for students attending St Augustine’s. Students are forced to use the public V/Line bus service, and I am told they are regularly subjected to vile comments and intimidation by members of the public using the bus service. Because of the large number of public patrons, buses are normally overcrowded, forcing many students to sit on the floor of the bus, raising unacceptable safety concerns for the students. The students stated that there are regular fights at the public bus stop, and a St Augustine’s student was recently assaulted by three assailants while waiting for his bus. On behalf of all students living in Tatura, the student who wrote to me asked why there was not a dedicated school bus service to transport the growing number of students attending St Augustine’s. The minister should take action to spare these students from having to travel on the public V/Line bus system and provide a dedicated school bus system for the students travelling from Tatura to St Augustine’s in Kyabram.