Adjournment - Docklands Primary School
Ms SANDELL (Melbourne) — I raise a matter for the Minister for Education relating to the need for a new school in Docklands. The action I seek is that the minister immediately release the results of the feasibility study, first commissioned in 2010, and any other analysis relating to the building of a primary school in Docklands.
Docklands is one of the fastest growing areas in the whole of Australia. When Docklands is completed in 2025 it is expected to cover an area twice the size of the CBD and be home to 20 000 people, including families. It is estimated that 850 children aged under 14 years will live in Docklands by 2017, yet there are no plans for a primary school in the suburb. Currently parents are coping by sending their kids to schools which are already oversubscribed in Carlton and North Melbourne, with some sending them further afield to schools in Hawthorn and other eastern suburbs. This is the no. 1 issue for the Docklands Community Forum and is a significant barrier to families creating a life for themselves in Docklands. State governments seem happy to grab the cash from big apartment developments in the city but have often been less keen to hold up their end of the bargain, which is to ensure that there is properly planned community infrastructure like schools, parks and childcare facilities. The Labor government has promised to release the feasibility study it undertook in 2010 but has not yet done so. I am calling on the minister to immediately release this study, if it exists, and begin the planning process for a school in the Docklands in order to meet the needs of the community and give parents some peace of mind about their children’s future education.