Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to talk about a safety issue at one of the schools in my electorate. St Patrick's Primary School in Geelong West is one of the city's oldest Catholic primary schools. Last year, it celebrated its centenary. A wonderful milestone, particularly given the school is currently growing at historic levels. Next year, the school expects enrolments of 420 kids. That is up from 375 students this year and from just 150 students in 2006. It is phenomenal growth, and all the more remarkable given that Geelong West is an established suburb, not a new area. The school has worked extraordinarily hard to ensure quality accommodation for all its students, and added six classrooms this year. I am pleased to add that the federal government funds from Building the Education Revolution came just at the right time and allowed the school to improve its assembly area and library, as well as create additional classroom space.

The issue I want to talk about today is the safety of students once they leave school grounds. St Patrick's is bounded on three sides by suburban streets: Petrel and Britannia Streets and Clonard Avenue. These three streets are quite narrow and can be extremely busy, especially during school drop off in the morning and afternoon pick-up times. The problem is that none of these streets have a dedicated school crossing. There is no safe place for children to cross the road. When you consider the mix of narrow streets congested with parked cars and moving cars weaving in and out, picking up children, as well as children and their parents trying to cross roads at any point, you have a potentially lethal combination.

There have been no accidents so far; this is a blessing. But the school says there have been a few near misses and they are extremely worried for the future. This issue is not unique in Geelong and to St Patrick's. Next year, 420 students will be trying to leave the school grounds in a short space of time, heading off in three directions with no safe place to cross the road. Already, the teacher on afternoon yard duty acts as de facto pedestrian coordinator on the footpath outside the school. Worse still, the walking school bus is losing volunteer parents, because the risks to safety have become all too apparent. The school has petitioned the city of Greater Geelong in the past about this issue. The council has assessed the traffic levels and offered to send a traffic educator to talk to the students, but I believe the time has come to take this issue a bit further. The school needs dedicated school crossing and maybe clearway zones along some of the streets, particularly Clonard Avenue during peak times. In the coming weeks, my office will be meeting with Councillor Barb Abley, the local ward councillor for the area, and a council engineer at the school at pick-up time so the city can see for itself the problem firsthand and have a good look at how this issue can be resolved. The growth of St Patrick's is to be celebrated, but that should not mean we allow safety to be compromised.