Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to reflect on the gratitude of the constituents of my electorate of Forde following a wonderful announcement that has been made within the last couple of weeks. On 5 November, just a couple of weeks ago, Julia Gillard, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, announced the results of the second funding round for trade training centres, part of our $384 million commitment to trade training in this country.

Three high schools in my electorate, which had been well under-resourced for so long, are to be beneficiaries under the program, which is a wonderful model. They will receive a grant of $3.9 million towards creating a hub for hospitality training. The three high schools, Windaroo Valley State High School, Beenleigh State High School and Loganlea State High School, have come together in collaboration and through cooperative processes and planning to secure for our community in the seat of Forde this wonderful opportunity to provide hospitality training. It is a large commitment by our government but certainly well deserved for the teachers and administration staff. I want to pay special tribute to the principals: Kay Louwrens, from Windaroo Valley High School; Desley Hodge, who was acting principal during the planning period and is now Deputy Principal again, and Matthew O’Hanlon, from Beenleigh High School; and Allison Crane, from Loganlea High School, who has done an enormous amount of work in this community.

These particular high schools in the community of Forde have been seriously underresourced. They are providing and have provided wonderful educational products. In the area of Forde, which is so diverse, to be able to offer hospitality training is something that will benefit the much wider community and certainly the community of South-East Queensland.

The multisite Trade Training Centre will allow our students to build on what is currently occurring at local schools, with year 9 to year 12 students starting traineeships and apprenticeships. The multisite Trade Training Centre will be beneficial in delivering education to students at the three high schools while servicing approximately 10,000 students across what they call the ENABLE schools project, which takes on about 11 high schools. In the area of Logan and Logan City, which is a major part of my electorate, it is one of the largest employers. It is also part of the northern end of the Gold Coast, where hospitality is a major interest and where there have been skills deficits in providing services to local business. So this particular project and investment will certainly bring benefits to the community for a long time.

I want to add another great announcement, about part of our rollout of our health services, the commitment to the GP superclinics. You may be aware that there was a superclinic planned somewhere for the south side of Brisbane. There was a lot of negotiation and planning and cooperation between different agencies about where that should be located. I was pleased to be part of the announcement by our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and our Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, just in the last couple of weeks. They have announced that two superclinic hubs, part of a hub-and-spoke model, will be established in Logan and Annerley, and two further, complementary satellite sites will be announced in the broader Brisbane and south-side region.

This is a project and a cooperative model that involves the University of Queensland, as a major partner, and also the Logan region in the hospital services that will be provided in that region. This is on top of a previously announced $44 million expansion of the hospital emergency centre for Logan Hospital. This region has been underresourced for a long time and I am so very proud to be the member that has been part of the process of being able to provide the services to our community. The Logan site for this particular service—and it is a very busy site, of course—will have a GP service, a refuge and disadvantaged persons’ service, a maternal and women’s health service, and a paediatrics and early intervention clinic, services that are very much needed within our region. This announcement of the large investment of $7.5 million towards the superclinic for the south side of Brisbane will certainly benefit not only my electorate but also the whole region it services through that corridor.

This week, along with all the announcements of these projects, there were the schools celebrating their award nights. Having attended six of those award nights during the week, it was great to see the benefits that are now starting to flow from our investment in education. It is not only through our Trade Training Centre developments but also through the Building the Education Revolution program, with the rollout of new buildings, new assets and the IT resources that are being put into these schools. It is great for the region and great for Forde. (Time expired)