Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Sunday, 17 June, I had the great pleasure of attending the official opening—in fact, officiating at the opening—of the Hume Global Learning Centre in my electorate of Calwell in the very fast-growing suburb of Craigieburn. This particular day was very special for the community and indeed for me as well, as the federal member. The Craigieburn learning centre is modelled largely on the Hume Global Learning Centre in Broadmeadows. It is a global learning village that has acquired in the 10 years that it has been in existence in Broadmeadows an international reputation for excellence in lifelong learning. I am very pleased that another global learning village has been established in Craigieburn in my electorate. The building of this magnificent state-of-the-art library would not have been possible without the contribution from the federal government. The federal government, through its Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program gave our community $9.47 million—that contribution was one of the biggest contributions to a local community—in order to make the building of this very significant institution possible. Can I also acknowledge and thank the Hume council's contribution of $7 million to the overall $16 million or so project which is going to benefit the very fast-growing suburb of Craigieburn.

It was very timely to open officially the global learning village in Craigieburn, in the year that the Australian government has proclaimed the National Year of Reading. As we all know, libraries are places where you go and borrow a book for the purpose of reading it, and that is certainly a practice that we want to encourage amongst young people. Also, it is a practice that we want to make available to older generations of Australians who are now going to libraries for the purpose of not only borrowing books but also gaining access to IT and use of computers. Of course, the Craigieburn learning centre will have all of these facilities. It will have PCs, it will have internet connection, it will have e-books available and it will have e-audio books. There will be youth and children's areas and there will be opportunities for playtime reading. There will be opportunities also for older Australians to come together in what is an exquisite new cafe, which is part of our global learning centre. Congratulations to the community of Craigieburn, and much appreciation to the Australian government and to the Hume City Council for making such an excellent learning centre available.