Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Friday, I was privileged to attend the BER opening at the Fernvale State Primary School. Fernvale is a part of the Somerset regional area which has been redistributed into the federal electorate of Blair. In representing the Deputy Prime Minister I opened the new resource centre, the new multipurpose hall and the new level sports field. David Raine, the principal, has been there for many years, from when the school numbered just over 200 students, and there are currently 530 students. I want to congratulate Mr Raine, the P&C, particularly Mr Jeff Kalinowski, the Fernvale P&C president, and Mr Graham Peel, the immediate past president of the P&C, and his wife for their foresight. Mr Raine said that his dreams came true with this BER funding. At $3.2 million it is the biggest school funding initiative in the Somerset region. Also present were the state member for Ipswich West, Mr Wayne Wendt, and Mr Graeme Lehman, the mayor of the Somerset Regional Council. Robin Maycock, the program manager for TBH told me that 200 jobs were created by this particular project. It is a wonderful initiative.

The multipurpose hall caters for about 800 students, because the growth in this area is simply enormous. One thousand new lots have been approved for the Somerset Regional Council. This is, of course, part of the BER funding and commitment to our local education. In the Somerset region there are about 18 schools. Somerset, now added to the Blair electorate, was part of the electorates of Dickson and Fisher. This has been warmly welcomed by the electorate of Blair, which has a strong connection with Ipswich. But the member for Dickson was not there; he sent an apology. He did not vote for this funding, and I made it pretty plain to the people there that he did not support this. I was very pleased to have voted for this funding. The Deputy Mayor of the Somerset Regional Council was not there either. If he had been in parliament he would not have voted for it either, for that matter.

The truth is that this initiative, which created jobs in this area, brought forward great funding initiatives. The school community loved this project. It gave a great opportunity to the people of Lower Somerset and to the young children there. It is simply a shame and a tragedy that the member for Dickson did not vote for the project. He did not have the foresight and the fortitude to stand up for his local community when he represented it. That is the truth. Those opposite are big, strong, courageous people back home in their electorates, but here they do not stand up for the school communities and we know that for a fact.