Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

In speaking on this motion by the member for La Trobe regarding cuts to Victorian TAFE funding I want to deal with the legacy issues faced by the current Victorian government and focus, not on some of the doom and gloom, but on a way forward—a way to achieve better education for Victorian students. In particular, I want to deal with the prospect of a National Centre for Coasts and Climate at Point Nepean. I will do so in three stages: firstly, looking at the vision; secondly, looking at the history; and thirdly, looking at the plan.

Let me begin with the vision, because this is about tertiary education for young people on the Mornington Peninsula who have been starved of opportunities. There are some very valuable institutions but none at the degree-awarding level—none which gives young people the opportunity to carve out a career through advanced research. The vision for a National Centre for Coasts and Climate at Point Nepean was something which began a decade ago and we have not wavered. The local community has been utterly supportive. There was a long battle to ensure that this land, which was in the hands of Defence, was not sold off to private developers. In so doing, we would have lost two great assets: one of Australia's great headlands, refuges, parks and vistas, and the old quarantine station at Point Nepean—one of the greatest historic sites in all of Australia's built environments, which we would have seen converted. The land has been preserved—of that I am confident. The solution will be in place for the next 100 years and then, I am certain, beyond that.

The buildings are the real subject of the great story to come, though. In my judgment, the history to come will be of a National Centre for Coast and Climate, conducted by Victorian universities using tertiary places allocated by the previous federal government. That vision comprises three elements: firstly, historic use—the quarantine station and the museum; secondly, marine education and coasts and climate education as a centrepiece, as the mainstay, the heart, of the campus; and, thirdly, the potential for bringing the public in, whether through conferencing or wellbeing—the notions articulated by Andrew Fairley, the current Chair of Parks Victoria, who has been a tremendous interlocutor in this project.

I now want to turn to something of the history. The community, through many fronts, worked to achieve this outcome, but the Howard government in particular put in place approximately $50 million for advancing and protecting marine and coastal education at Point Nepean and advancing and protecting the built heritage. So these elements are the historic legacy. Unfortunately, when the land was turned over from the former minister for the environment, the current member for Kingsford Smith, to the then Brumby government, much of that vision was lost, and the community work was abandoned.

There are many people to thank, including Environment Victoria, and Eric Noel, my friend, who did so much work on that front; the members of the community reference group, and others. However, we are now in a position to move forward. I have had tremendous support and engagement from the Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne University, Glyn Davis; from the Victorian minister for the environment, Ryan Smith; and from the Chair of Parks Victoria, Andrew Fairley.

As we move forward, the plan is close to fruition. Parks Victoria is currently completing its analysis of marine and coastal education for the Mornington Peninsula. My belief is that there will be, most likely, three elements to that plan—exactly what the community had always envisaged: history, education, and community use and wellbeing. So that is a step forward. For that we are thankful.

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