Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Justice and Public Security) Share this | Hansard source

In regard to education I go back to my days at Ferntree Gully Technical School, a very tough school. We had some fantastic teachers indeed. I remember one in particular, Mrs Osland, who was our maths teacher. She did a fantastic job of encouraging all the students to give their best—to give 110 per cent. Her efforts saw people like me and others give 110 per cent when it came to everything we did at our school. Ferntree Gully Technical School has, sadly, been demolished and has been replaced by real estate. It is a sad thing to see that a technical school no longer exists. We now look to St Joseph’s College, which has a technical college, for the future. That was one of the announcements of the previous government. We put the major focus on technical education. I was so proud the day I was with Prime Minister John Howard and the principal, Vin Feeney, at St Joseph’s College. We got to see firsthand what the students at St Joseph’s College were actually doing with their technical school and how proud the students were knowing they were going into a career of technical education.

During the previous federal election campaign the Rudd government promised to build a technical school in Casey in the suburb of Berwick. To this day I do not know what has happened to that proposal and where it is actually going. With one of the fastest growing growth corridors in this entire country, a technical school in the south of my electorate is very much warranted, and I congratulate the former Minister for Vocational and Further Education, Andrew Robb, who during that campaign also made an announcement to build a technical school in the Lakeside, Pakenham or Officer areas. Very sadly, though, as I have stated previously, we actually have not seen anything of the sort being constructed.

A big issue in my electorate during the campaign was the Timbarra secondary school and sporting complex. Timbarra is a new residential area. It had previously been promised by the state Labor government that there would be a secondary school built, so you had all these new people moving to the area and expecting a technical school to be constructed. Sadly, through the wisdom of the state government in Victoria, they decided that they would not actually be building a secondary school and that, in fact, they would be selling the land off! It was only when Councillor Brian Hetherton approached me and told me that in fact the land had not been sold by the state government that there was still some hope that we could use this land and still have a secondary school built there and also have a sporting facility.

We ran a fairly strong campaign, and there were public meetings to see what community interest there was. There was amazing passion and commitment from the residents of Timbarra, who desperately wanted a secondary school to be built. They campaigned long and hard. I know the candidate for Narre Warren North, Mick Morland, made an election commitment to have an education facility built, and it was eventually matched by the Labor member for Narre Warren North, Luke Donnellan. I congratulate the state Labor government for eventually—only due to a large public outcry and demand—coming to the party and saying they would build a secondary school. Sadly, again, to this day I believe it is still in the planning stage, and we have had numerous fights with the Casey City Council. At the end of the day, all governments are there to do the best they can, whether they be state or federal. What we need to see is this school actually being constructed to service this amazing, huge growth corridor. I know that Principal Ian McKenzie from Kambrya College—I believe it was either this year or last year—had 370 year 7 students, which is quite an amazing effort when you think of all those students going to his school. That is why it was so vitally important to have a Timbarra secondary college.

Also, we have the Oatlanders basketball team nearby, and we have Auskick with the football. What we found again was a crying need to have some sporting facilities there. It was during the federal campaign that I made a $2.5 million commitment for a Timbarra sporting complex. This was going to do amazing things to the local area. First of all, we had all these kids in Auskick scattered around various grounds, and we also had the Oatlanders basketball team based down at Dandenong. They wanted a local venue, and they were very passionate about their local venue. I strongly supported their needs. It was so obvious that because of this huge growth in population we needed a basketball and sporting facility.

Then we go to our Investing in Our Schools Program. I say to the members of the Rudd government that it is one of the saddest aspects of the new government that they cut that program. I can see that you could have renamed the program. I am not sure where the education revolution comes from when you actually cut outstanding programs.

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