Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Little schools do matter.' They're the words of Maree, a mum of four and active school community member at Lal LalPrimary School, one of a number of proud local schools who are celebrating their 150th anniversary this year. The Lal Lal celebration was a brilliant event with songs from students, the retrieval of a time capsule and plenty of cake, of course. I met the current grade 5 and 6 students here in Parliament House in October, but it was really exciting to also meet 94-year-old Pat, a grand matriarch who attended the school in 1937, and, of course, 100-year-old Jim, who attended the school for a month back in 1931 while he was staying his grandma while his mum was having his sister.

Trentham Primary School also celebrated their 150th anniversary this past weekend. They celebrated with a sausage sizzle, slushies and a lot of dancing and cake. My sister-in-law Kerryn, who's actually here in Canberra this week, and her sisters all attended this little school in the 1960s. They still have very fond memories of it. I was proud to attend the Clunes Primary School 150th anniversary in July this year, and I look forward to celebrating the 150th anniversary of Warrenheip Primary School on 7 December. It really speaks volumes of just how much little schools matter in that so many people are coming together to celebrate these momentous occasions.

There is, of course, nothing quite like the Ballarat Show. 2025 was the show's 170th year, but it was its first in its new Mount Rowan home. It's always a huge and fun-filled day for local families, from dachshund races, camel rides and miniature goats to competitive woodchops and motocross professionals doing exciting tricks. I'm not the only one who loves the show; in fact, over 20,000 people visited this year—5,000 more than last year's show. I was very pleased to support the Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society with a $1.5 million election commitment in April this year. The funds will go towards the new event and exhibition centre. It will be a versatile and modern venue able to host everything from agriculture and wine shows to workshops and community get-togethers. I want to congratulate in particular Kerri, Matt and the rest of the volunteer committee, who've done a brilliant job of relocating to the new premises and continuing the show's proud legacy.

I also want to briefly speak about the huge increase the Albanese Labor government is giving to regional road funding. Two things that really shocked me when I first became the minister included the cuts that had been made to road maintenance funding under those opposite—the cutting, the freezing of indexation to road maintenance funding. Now that we have doubled Roads to Recovery, $1 billion is going each and every year to our local governments for the roads that we work on every single day.