Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to inform the parliament that I had the pleasure of opening the new campus at St Peter's College in Cranbourne East last Friday on a glorious summers day, in the presence of 100 students, Bishop Christopher Prowse and Mr Peter Ryan, the Director of the Catholic Education Diocese of Sale. As we were proceeding to this new outstanding Catholic school in the suburb of Cranbourne East, I regret to say that we got lost. Cranbourne East is a new housing development area. As we were progressing along one road, we were told that we should look for this exquisite series of two-storey buildings, because that is where we could see where the school was. We found our way onto Berwick-Cranbourne Road and, as we were driving along, we saw this outstanding facility in the distance. That guided us towards the school. The federal government contributed $2 million under the Australian government's Capital Grants Program for this particular project, and it is money incredibly well spent.

One of the great things about being in this government is the partnership with the Catholic Education Office in developing these facilities in these areas. My area is categorised as a growth belt area. There is a lot of housing development. It has lots of housing estates. When you have this enormous surge in growth, with lots of families shifting into the area literally each week, what basically happens is that you need to provide what I call the social infrastructure—the infrastructure that is needed to provide for the community wellbeing. The development of St Peter's College in Cranbourne East is an essential part of that community development infrastructure. It was wonderful to be there with Bishop Christopher Prowse. The motto of the school is 'be not afraid', and I saw hope for our future on the faces of the 100 students. We took a tour of the school after it was officially opened. It is a $6 million facility and is stage 1 of the school. When we looked at the quality of the students and the school we could see that this school—like its predecessor, which still exists in Cranbourne—is going to make its mark on the community. It is going to offer hope and choice and a way of the future for young people looking for a school that offers values, future direction, hope and inspiration through the quality of its facilities and its teachers. I was very pleased on behalf of the government, working in partnership with the Catholic Education Office, to open this school. This is the way of the future. The great thing about it is that it is about choice, it is about hope and it is about opportunity. I was part of that last Friday.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! In accordance with standing order 193 the time for constituency statements has concluded.