Labor pledges 100 new schools for Victoria

ONE hundred new schools would be built across Victoria if the Andrews Government is re-elected, with booming Melbourne growth areas including Casey and Melton to benefit most.

Daniel Andrews and wife Catherine Andrews board the Labor bus in Noble Park. Picture: AAP

ONE hundred new schools would be built in the next eight years to cope with Melbourne’s booming population if the Andrews Government is re-elected.

Premier Daniel Andrews said 45 schools would be built across Victoria in the next term if Labor wins the election, costing about $850 million and creating about 2500 construction jobs.

Planning for the further 55 schools would begin next term, to allow them to be open for enrolments within eight years as promised.

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Growth areas of Casey, Wyndham, Hume and Melton will benefit most from the promised blitz, with 25 of the first 45 to be built in those areas.

Visiting a new school in the booming area of Pakenham, near to the marginal electorate of Bass held by the Liberal Party, Mr Andrews said the “profound investment” meant that “no matter where you live, every family and every child has a great local school”.

James Merlino and Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Nicole Garmston

“Every Victorian benefits whenever a young person is given the skills, the confidence that they need to play their part in our great state,” he said.

The premier would not say whether the money would come from Labor’s Budget surpluses, but said financial details of all his commitments would be unveiled soon.

“All of our commitments will be accounted for before the 24th of November,” he said.

He ruled out new taxes to pay for the promise.

Education Minister James Merlino said the list of schools included about 28 primary schools, which would all be built with a kindergarten attached.

“It’s about thinking for the long term,” he said.

On the location of the new schools, Mr Merlino said: “We base our investments on population growth”

The kindergarten pledge is part of Labor’s $5 billion plan to enable universal 3-year-old kindergarten access in Victoria.

Mr Andrews said this would help parents avoid the “double drop-off” which was very time consuming.

Joined by his wife Cath on the campaign trail and met by future students of a school in Pakenham about to be opened, Mr Andrews said every new primary school — and some being planned and built at the moment — would have a kindergarten on site or on neighbouring sites.

“We’ve already said we’ll make sure all Victorian kids get an extra year of kinder — and now we’re taking action so that school drop-off is just that little bit easier for parents,” he said.

Mr Merlino said it takes two years to fund, design and build a new school and there was not one new school that opened in 2016 because the former Napthine Government had not planned for new facilities.

“We’ve opened 21 schools from zero in 2016,” he said.

“It’s dealing with population growth … we can map out and get a great sense of what will be the need in five years time, 10 years time,” he said.

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