Thursday, 28 November 2024

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:41): (1348) My adjournment is for the Treasurer. The action I seek is for the Treasurer to ensure that funding for stage 1 of the Wangaratta High School is included in the 2025–26 state budget. Wangaratta High School is a wonderful school, the only public high school in Wangaratta. It is also a growing school and needs funding to upgrade its facilities. The state Labor government promised Wangaratta High School $11.7 million during the 2022 election campaign, but when the budget was handed down in May 2023 the $11.7 million for Wangaratta High School was missing. When the next budget was handed down in 2024, once again there was no money for Wangaratta High School. Two years in a row the school has been let down by Labor. This is typical behaviour by Labor – lying to Victorians and promising the world in order to win elections but then going back on its word and abandoning regional communities after winning an election. Remember the absolute debacle of the Commonwealth Games cancellation? The embarrassment returns every time I read in the paper that Scotland is about to enjoy a Commonwealth Games paid for by the Victorian taxpayers. This Labor government is so incompetent it could not run a high school sports day, let alone a Commonwealth Games.

Teachers, parents and students in Wangaratta feel the same disappointment as I do with the Allan Labor government. Wangaratta High was one of the schools that shared in the $20 million school upgrade delivery fund, which provided small amounts of funding to a number of schools to create a master plan for the expansion and maintenance of their facilities. The design funding created high hopes that upgrades would be built, but when the 2024–25 budget was handed down there was no money for Wangaratta High School. It was one of 29 schools to get money for designing a master plan but missed out on money to actually carry out the building works. The school community was bitterly disappointed because the master plan lays out a vision for the school’s future buildings and facilities that everyone is excited to see become a reality.

The master plan identifies 14 projects that are essential for the school’s future, and stage 1 contains five key projects that the school wants to prioritise. Stage 1 includes conversion of an open-plan space into discrete classrooms. That will reduce distractions and enable quiet concentration and learning. It also includes the remediation of stormwater damage in the performing arts centre, allowing kids to get back to singing and dancing in a safe environment. The school council recently signed off on the design plan, and these projects are shovel-ready. All that is missing is the money that the Labor government promised back in 2022. The longer the school has to wait, the more expensive everything becomes and the less the $11 million will buy. The 2025 budget is on the horizon, and the Treasurer and Minister for Education cannot keep ignoring Wangaratta students.