My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, James Merlino, and it is in relation to the Bannockburn P–12 school.
The local community has been campaigning for many years to get a new school. Bannockburn is one of the fastest growing towns in one of the fastest growing municipalities in this state, the Golden Plains Shire.
The community and the council have gotten right behind this campaign over a long period of time. I understand that we became aware of this during the term of the Brumby government, and we went to the 2010 election with a commitment to build that school.
I understand that the coalition also made that commitment, but in its four years of being in government it did not do that at all.
It has been left to the Andrews Labor government to deliver on this. I had the opportunity to go out to Bannockburn and make the announcement that the first sod will be turned halfway through next year and that day one of term 1 in 2018 will see the opening of that school.
Given the positive reaction we had to that visit to Bannockburn last week — there has been a flurry of communication on social media, Facebook and everything else from parents and people who want to go and live in Bannockburn — the information the community and I seek from the minister tonight is when will families in the region be able to enrol their children at the new school, and will the school accept enrolments for all year levels in 2018 or will new year levels be phased in each year?