Member for Northern Victoria Region Candy Broad has called on the Member for Mildura, Peter Crisp to deliver the funding Ouyen P-12 College urgently needs to finish the school building program.
Ms Broad said that the Member for Mildura had not delivered the funds that Ouyen P-12 College needs to finish the building program and that the Baillieu-Ryan Government had not made a commitment to the school either.
“Now is the time for Mr Crisp to provide the solution that Ouyen needs and deliver the funding to complete the school building program in the State Budget by the Baillieu Government in May this year”.
Ms Broad told Parliament that she recently visited Ouyen P-12 College and was pleased to see the new buildings at the school being utilised with pride and enthusiasm by students and staff as they were intended to be by the former Labor Government which allocated funding for their construction.
“However, during my visit I was made aware of the $354,000 bill confronting the school to fix the list of building faults identified by the school buildings review, as well as the fact that the school’s budget for maintenance is just $43,574, leaving a gap of more than $300,000”, Ms Broad said.
“This is the direct result of the refusal of the Baillieu-Ryan Government to fund the completion of the building program”.
“As a result the school must patch up buildings that are due for demolition just to keep them safe”, Ms Broad said
“Even worse, because the building program is not complete and the school is split between two sites that are divided by a railway line and a major highway that staff and students must cross many times on a daily basis, the whole school community continues to be fearful of the risks, risks that they did not sign up for because the school was never supposed to be split between two sites”, she said.