Ms SPENCE (Yuroke): My constituency question is to the Minister for Education. What information can the minister provide on planning for the next stage of the Andrews Labor government’s commitment to deliver 100 new schools? Prior to the last election, the government committed to opening six new schools in the Yuroke electorate, including new primary schools in Craigieburn, Mickleham, Kalkallo and Greenvale and new secondary schools in Craigieburn and Greenvale. Earlier this year, I was pleased to join the minister for the opening of the first of these new schools—Aitken Hill Primary School. Along with Yuroke residents, I am excited to see new facilities take shape at these new schools. With 47 of the 100 new schools already announced, many families living in the rapidly growing northern part of my electorate are very interested in hearing about the government’s plans for the next stage of this package and in particular the potential for a secondary school for families living in the Mickleham area. I thank the minister for all the work he has done and I look forward to sharing his response with my community.

Response:

The Andrews Labor Government is committed to growing educational opportunities for all Victorians. The previous five State Budgets have invested more than $5.6 billion to build new schools and modernise existing educational facilities across Victoria.

We will continue with this record funding and open 100 new schools over the next eight years (2019-2026) to meet the increasing demand for student places stemming from Victoria’s growing population. The first 47 of these have already been announced.

Planning for the remaining 53 schools is already underway. Developing a new school is a significant investment and involves a number of stages to ensure that public money is invested in the right place at the right time. These stages include demographic assessment, site selection and a site suitability assessment, land acquisition, school design and, finally, construction.

The Department of Education and Training will continue to review historic and forecast demographic data and actual school enrolments for the Mickleham area to advise Government when and where other new secondary schools need to be delivered as part of the state-wide planning for new schools.

I trust this information is of assistance.

The Hon James Merlino MP
Minister for Education