Ros SPENCE (Kalkallo – Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Community Sport, Minister for Carers and Volunteers) (09:54): Last Friday I had the opportunity to officially open the Kalkallo North Community Centre and the Grand Boulevard reserve play space in Craigieburn.

Kalkallo is a rapidly growing suburb in my electorate and is home to thousands of residents, with plenty more to come, which is why I was thrilled to open this brand new, state-of-the-art community centre, ensuring that local residents have access to the services they need closer to home.

The centre includes function spaces, multipurpose community meeting rooms, a commercial kitchen, consulting rooms, maternal and child health services, three preschool rooms catering to nearly 200 places and even a tea and coffee station for locals to help themselves to a cuppa.

This facility was a partnership with Hume City Council, with a $5 million investment from the Allan Labor government’s Growing Suburbs Fund and the Building Blocks capacity building grants, along with $4.5 million from council.

Next door to the new Banum Warrik Primary School opening next year, this centre will help minimise the double drop-off and the services on site will be warmly welcomed by the local community.

It was also terrific to open the play space at Grand Boulevard Reserve, featuring a nature play area as well as both junior and senior playgrounds for children.

In another partnership with Hume City Council this project received $2 million in funding from our government’s Growing Suburbs Fund and $4.8 million from council.

This reserve is an outstanding addition to the local community and once complete will include multipurpose sports courts, a BMX track, a skate park and an irrigated kick-out lawn. I look forward to seeing both these important projects put to good use.