Tuesday, 18 February 2025

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:55): (1370) My question is for the attention of the Minister for Education, because it relates to the Victorian School Building Authority. As the mayor of Glen Eira has written to him, it is in relation to preserving tree canopy around school developments. At Bentleigh West Primary School, where there is a need to have increased capacity and they are putting in portable classrooms, seven mature trees have been moved. As the mayor has pointed out, those trees provided great amenity not only to the area but also importantly to that school community and those children, who need to have a proper canopy. This particular city council, Glen Eira City Council, have the lowest amount of open space per capita in metropolitan Melbourne, and now they are removing these trees. So the question I ask is: what is the government doing to get a more balanced approach that prioritises tree retention in school development planning?