Thursday, 5 February 2026

 John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (18:51): (2287) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education in the other place. The school year has started for 2026, and that means that 19 brand new schools are filling up their classrooms for the first time. These are schools which have been built by the Allan Labor government to accommodate our state’s growing population and the demand for new school places in growth areas. In the Southern Metropolitan Region we have seen Narrarrang Primary School, located in Port Melbourne, open up its doors for the first time. This will enable local kids to go to school close to where they live and help prevent overcrowding in classrooms at nearby schools by meeting the demand for new places. These 19 new schools just opened are neither the beginning nor the end of the Labor government’s school-building agenda. In fact with these 19 finished, that brings us up to 100 new schools built under this Labor government, with more underway. Victoria’s investment in school infrastructure is an important part of the investment in our children’s future, and it is paying off, with Victoria currently leading the nation in NAPLAN results. The action I seek is for the minister to provide me with an update on how much capital investment has been made in public schools in the Southern Metropolitan Region since the government came to office.