I rise to speak on the Appropriation (2023–2024) Bill 2023 and the Appropriation (Parliament 2023–2024) Bill 2023 and in support of this government’s budget. Last Tuesday we received the details of the state budget, and I am proud to speak in this chamber to outline some of the wins that we had for my electorate of Glen Waverley. Firstly, I would like to thank the Treasurer and the Assistant Treasurer and their teams for all their hard work on this budget. They have managed to strike a balance between managing the debt we acquired from the pandemic and making sure that we fulfil our election commitments and promises, making sure our communities still receive the funding they deserve to keep Victorian running.
Last November I was fortunate to get a promise from the Andrews Labor government, and that promise was to deliver $10.9 million to upgrade Forest Hill College – and now we are doing just that. Forest Hill College is one of our many excellent public schools in my electorate, with over 600 students. Forest Hill provides quality education in all areas of the curriculum, including sport. They have got excellent academies in football, basketball and tennis, and they run wonderful programs there. I have been fortunate to be down at the school many times over the last year, including when I was invited down as a candidate, to see the great work of principal David Rogers and his assistant principal Nicola Buckingham, and I also was able to go down and visit the parents and teachers council, which is run by Robert Nash. I was also fortunate to get down there with the Minister for Education last year to deliver that promise, and I thank the minister and all her team for the work in upgrading schools across the state, including those in my electorate.
The $10.9 million we are contributing to the Forest Hill College will go to upgrading three buildings in the school, blocks A, D and M, and I must say that is very much needed. I was down there earlier this year when they had a few issues with some skylights. That is all being sorted as we speak, but I am looking forward to those buildings being replaced so there will not be any issues in the future. These upgrades will provide much-needed quality learning spaces for the students. On Tuesday last week I called principal Rogers and the school council president and informed them that our election commitment will be fulfilled in this budget and the next. I can assure the house that David and Robert and the leadership team of teachers at Forest Hill College are very excited about the outcome of this budget and are looking forward to works at the school beginning. I was also invited down last Thursday for an assembly for National Reconciliation Week. They ran a wonderful assembly recognising what we need to do in our state for reconciliation.
I know that the parents and students at Forest Hill College welcome this budget allocation. Last November my volunteer team and I doorknocked and letterboxed the areas around Forest Hill College to inform the residents of the funding we would be providing if an Andrews Labor government was re-elected. My team and I spoke to hundreds of people, and we noticed that this announcement was well received. I remember speaking to several voters at pre-poll actually, down at Mahoneys Road, where we spent 12 days speaking to every elector that was coming through that booth. Many of them walked up to me thanking the Andrews Labor government for the promise that we made, and now we are going to deliver that with this budget. We know how important education is to all of us, especially our future generations. I welcome this budget commitment and look forward to working with the minister and the college community to deliver these upgrades.
While I am on education, the continuation of our early childhood and pre-prep policies and agenda is astounding. My daughter was born in 2018, and we were fortunate to get three-year-old kinder rolled out through our area. She turned up to three-year-old kinder – the education outcomes that she has received from that. And then that has been backed up this year with free four-year-old kinder, which is just helpful to all of us. We talk about cost-of-living pressures at the moment, and the free kinder policy is something that will just make a massive difference to the community.
The other commitment that I was fortunate to get in this budget was $50,000 for the Waverley Woodworkers. This is a great organisation. I got to know them over the last five years working for the previous member for Mount Waverley. They just do some wonderful work. It is set up as a men’s shed, but there is a sense of community that you get around there. Men get to go down there, share experiences, share skills and also just support each other. It is very good for their mental health and so on. I called the president Ray French last Tuesday to let him know the good news, and all those involved in the organisation welcome the announcement. I was also lucky to visit the Waverley Woodworkers last year with the member for Ashwood to see the space. I should say I have been down there quite a few times. It is a wonderful space. They moved recently from an old, very small workshop to Central Reserve, underneath the footy stadium there, into a nice modern location, and this $50,000 is going to go towards helping them create some more storage space so that they can have timber stored properly. I am proud to be part of a government that values and invests in our local community groups. It is these kinds of organisations that keep our communities strong and healthy.
I am also proud to announce another important budget allocation for my electorate. Under this budget we are delivering $750,000 to fund Vermont Reserve. Vermont Reserve is home to the Vermont Cricket Club, the Vermont Football Club – it is the Vermont footy and netball club – and the Vermont Sports Club, all of which are excellent community sporting clubs. Early last year, around August, I met with local councillor Prue Cutts, who is now the deputy mayor, and all the presidents of those three organisations as well as some of the directors from Whitehorse council. It was good to see that we are all on the same page for what we want as outcomes for the Vermont Reserve. The toilets and showers are in a very bad state. We have got so much more female participation at all of these clubs, but females do not want to use these rooms – there is no privacy, and there is only one toilet in each of the rooms and two urinals. It is infrastructure that was built in the 1970s for the captive audience of mostly male participants then. We need to make sure that we are delivering for our sports clubs so that the higher uptake of female participation can be catered for.
It was great to speak to Danny Ross, the president of the Vermont Football Club; Trent Touhy, the president of the Vermont Cricket Club; and also Don Parsons, the president of the Vermont Sports Club. They are all excited about this announcement. It will go towards the change rooms, but also there will be an upgrade to the light system there. Because of the extra participation that we have there, we need to have the lights upgraded so that the oval can be used more regularly. It was excellent: I spoke to all of them; they are all very happy. We popped down there on Friday afternoon to catch up with them and make an announcement that it has been delivered in this budget. There was a lot of excitement in the room. The weather was not that great, but we were able to do that inside. I am glad that such discussions are happening around gender equality in sport, and I look forward to working with the local clubs to achieve gender equity in this space. Thank you to the Minister for Community Sport and her team for their work in ensuring our local sports facilities are maintained and those in my electorate regardless of age or gender can participate in community sport, and I look forward to working with the minister and her team to deliver this outcome.
This budget is investing in our healthcare system to make sure Victorians are getting the healthcare services that they deserve and need. The Andrews Labor government is investing $320 million into the Hospital Infrastructure Delivery Fund, and this fund will go towards planning, developing and the early works at the Monash Medical Centre and the Maroondah Hospital, two hospitals that are outside my electorate but that service my community in every facet of their health care. Additionally, we are investing in the women’s health clinics, because we know that we need specialist health clinics so women can attend and receive treatment or advice on areas from contraception to those struggling with conditions such as endometriosis and PCOS.
The Andrews Labor government is also funding to plan a new mental health and wellbeing local service in Glen Waverley, something that we will be very excited about. This service will be available for people aged 26 and over who are struggling with their mental health, including those experiencing physiological distress and addiction. The local service will be a welcome space for those in my community who are struggling. We do have a Headspace in the Glen Waverley area. Actually it is just on the outside of my district, but it services our community. This local service will be something that will be very useful for people over the age of 26. I see this local service as something sort of similar to the Orange Door program but specifically for mental health. It will be staffed by qualified mental health professionals, including carers. During the cost-of-living crisis I am sure there are many of my constituents who will be glad to hear that this service will be free of charge. Additionally, patients will not have to go to their doctor for a referral or reach mental health eligibility criteria.
We know that from a federal point of view people are wanting more mental health services, and this delivers on that. I believe that in removing these hurdles those in our community will be able to access the services when they need them, and therefore it will help remove the stigma around mental health. The Glen Waverley service will be one of 50 local mental health services that the Andrews Labor government will be establishing, and I am proud to stand with a government that takes mental health seriously and one that invests in the mental health services.
We are investing a lot in the healthcare sector in this budget because we know that we cannot live without health care. We are investing $46 million to train our future paramedics. We will also be training up specialist paramedic practitioners so Victorians can get the help they need before they arrive at the hospital. These are potentially life-saving measures that we are implementing. It feeds back into the priority primary care centres that we are currently running, trying to take the burden off some of the emergency rooms in our hospitals so people can get the health care that they need quicker and faster at these PPCCs. Additionally, we are investing $167 million to support our nurses and midwives. We are striving to strengthen the nurse-to-patient ratios so that we can make sure Victorians, including those in my electorate, get the best quality health care and medical attention. I would like to thank the Minister for Health and her team for all the hard work.
One of our major election commitments was to bring back the State Electricity Commission. This policy was very popular through the campaign, and we have not wasted a day in doing so. This budget commits $1 billion to bringing back the SEC so we can bring back government-owned energy and bring it back in the form of renewable energy. This budget is investing $12 million to establish the SEC centre for training and excellence so we can train a new generation of SEC workers, providing jobs for thousands of Victorians. This $5 million includes establishing clean energy courses so we can transition to safe, clean jobs. The centre will be hosting career nights at high schools and government schools so we can inspire the next generation to embark on a career in renewable energy.
In this budget we will also be investing $16 million to establish two new worker training centres for renewable energy, one in hydrogen and one in wind, and I am proud to see that this year’s budget is investing in renewable energy jobs and training for Victorians. This will be excellent down at the Holmesglen TAFE in the Glen Waverley district. I am hoping that we can get some courses down there. I would also like to thank the Minister for the State Electricity Commission and the department for all the work that has been done so far in helping to bring back the SEC. I and many in my electorate are looking forward to seeing the SEC up and running.
I have got $186 million to expand eligibility for VET subsidies and $170 million for the Building Better TAFE Fund, providing TAFE projects for the clean energy fund. The other – and I am running out of time; too many things – is the investment we are making in our multicultural communities across the east with regard to money being invested in the Whitehorse Lunar New Year festival and also money for our multicultural traders associations. The Tamil Festival Australia has been given another $400,000 over the four years, which will be excellent for my local Tamil community. I was just with the Bharathi Tamil language school on Sunday. They were also using the facilities at Forest Hill College; they train their students there at Forest Hill College. So it is not only a public school that we have in my area that gets to use the facilities but also the other community groups around that do use those facilities on the weekends and after hours.
The other thing I would like to touch on is the Suburban Rail Loop. I only have 20 seconds, but the ongoing works on this project will be important. We have currently got works underway in the Glen Waverley area. We are currently moving the services around to where the train station box will be, and the people in my area are excited about that. With that, I commend the bills to the house.
