Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to speak about the government’s innovative social inclusion agenda and to inform the House of a remarkable example of social inclusion in action within my electorate of Calwell. I want firstly to congratulate the Rudd Labor government and in particular Minister Julia Gillard and Senator Ursula Stephens for their work in advancing the social inclusion agenda. Almost everything that this government does has significant implications for social inclusion. The economic stimulus, the Community Infrastructure Program and skills and job development are all vital for genuine social inclusion. But a specific focus through the social inclusion portfolio is also important and can have very real impacts on our communities.

To that end, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister launched the inaugural meeting of the Australian Social Inclusion Board in 2008 in my electorate of Calwell. The venue for that occasion was the Hume Global Learning Centre. The event was significant but so too was the location. I have often said in this House, as have many of my colleagues, that education is the key to addressing structural disadvantage. Social inclusion therefore begins in our centres of learning at the community level.

A wonderful and unique example of a genuine community centre of learning, and hence of social inclusion, is the Hume Global Learning Centre in my electorate. Some 16 years ago, Hume City Council set up a Safe City Task Force to look into ways of improving the municipality. It, and particularly the suburb of Broadmeadows, suffered from the stigma of a range of social problems. Instead of looking at the problem from a punitive point of view, the group looked at ways to improve the quality of life through social inclusion. In this task, I wish to acknowledge the visionary leadership of Mr Frank McGuire.

The task force concluded that learning was central to life improvement. They also noted that Broadmeadows did not have a public library, something that now seems absolutely extraordinary. They recommended that the council pursue the idea of giving the community not only a public library but a proper centre of learning, an iconic building that would visibly celebrate learning. What followed was an exercise in cross-government cooperation which turned this dream into a reality. This is how the Hume Global Learning Centre was born. The Age newspaper chipped in also, and hence the public library that occupies the upper storey of the centre is now called the Age Library. In the last 12 months a new service called Ideas Lab has opened in the centre, and it is funded by IT companies such as Microsoft, Cisco and Intel. With the assistance of a grant through the government’s Community Infrastructure Program, a second major learning centre will now be built in Craigieburn, a rapidly growing community in the municipality with a hunger for learning and a community education facility. If anyone could possibly think that the previous lack of a library in Broadmeadows was due to a lack of interest or demand, they need only look at the usage figures. The Hume Global Learning Centre has attracted over 70,000 visitors in the last month alone, and over 1.2 million items were borrowed in the last financial year.

The ‘learning for all’ strategy incorporates the Hume Global Learning Village, a unique learning community network that actively engages local people in learning at all levels. The Hume Global Learning Village currently boasts nearly 600 members, including universities, TAFE colleges, schools, early childhood educators, registered training organisations, neighbourhood houses, community groups and individuals. The village’s stated aim is to:

… work together to create a community that embraces learning as the key to individual and community wellbeing.

As such, both the global learning centre and the global learning village are community-driven programs designed to share, develop and celebrate learning.

Community-driven programs feature a regular bilingual storytelling time for preschool children in the library. This service is incredibly important in linking recently arrived parents and those with limited English skills to the community, to publicly provided services and to other parents and their children. It also helps children develop their language and social skills. The Hume global learning model is unique and is studied by others from around the nation and even internationally. According to the learning community manager, George Osborne, the secret behind its success is:

It is a community that needs it, a council who gets it, and a management structure that works.

I want to congratulate the founder of the Hume Global Learning Village, Mr Frank McGuire; the manager of Hume’s learning community, Mr George Osborne; and the Hume City Council. (Time expired)