South-Eastern Metropolitan Region
Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:57): (473) My constituency question is for the Minister for Planning. I wish that the minister would actually advise me and my constituents as to why Casey – Casey council this is, where I live and have been living for the last 20 years with my family – has been ranked one of Melbourne’s government areas with the least access to public library services despite having over 9000 residents under the age of 24, and that rates at about 35.7 per cent of Casey’s population. Not having local library service access for schooling is a real concern, especially given that I have a genuine interest in education. There is currently none available to many, many people, and with a government Growing Suburbs Fund which has been slashed from $50 million to $10 million in the last state budget, it is an unacceptable situation. So we would like to know why.