Wednesday, 2 August 2023

South-Eastern Metropolitan Region schools

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:50): I rise to advise the house that the Andrews Labor government has again invested in infrastructure for our schools to benefit the rapidly growing community of Clyde North. This week the government acquired the land to build a new school to cater for more Clyde North families. The interim name of this school is Thompsons West primary. Construction will begin in October, and it will be ready to welcome new students in 2025. Importantly, we are delivering vital, state-of-the-art educational facilities at the time that families need them. This acquisition is part of a $1 billion investment in land for our schools since 2018. In the past nine years the government has invested more than $14.9 billion to build new schools and to deliver more than 1900 school upgrades.

On another matter, I am delighted to report on the naming of two new local schools currently being constructed in the outer south-east that will serve families in the Casey–Cardinia growth corridor. One such school in Clyde North with the interim name Alexander Boulevard primary school, which I have had the delight of discussing many times previously in this chamber, will now be known as Topirum Primary School, and the new interim-named Officer Brunt Road Primary School will now be known as Kurmile Primary. In the Bunurong language ‘topirum’ means ‘star’ and ‘kurmile’ means ‘white cockatoo’. All 14 new government schools that will open next year will proudly boast Indigenous language in their names.