Tuesday, 2 June 2026

 Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (15:39): Last week I had the pleasure of visiting the site of the new South West Tech School currently under construction in Warrnambool. The South West Tech School is Labor’s $12.65 million investment into the future of our region’s young people. In contrast, we hear of the Liberals’ $40 billion in cuts to the future of our region’s young people. The South West Tech School will bring state-of-the-art STEM learning facilities to the south-west. I was pleased to see the fantastic progress on the building, which is on budget and on track to open in term 4. Employers like Sun Pharma in Port Fairy, Alcoa in Portland and Wannon Water, for example, all need the latest in innovation skills. The South West Tech School will inspire young local innovators to do exactly that. My thanks and congratulations to Rohan Keert, the director; Mark Fidge, the CEO of South West TAFE; and Damien Tan from the construction team at AW Nicholson. While Labor is investing in young people in the south-west of Victoria, we cannot trust the Libs when they have already promised cuts.