Mr  J. BULL (Sunbury) — (13 025) The matter I raise is also for the attention of the Minister for Education. The action I seek is that the minister approve funding for a shared facility between Hume City Council, Sunbury Downs College and Sunbury Heights Primary School in my electorate. As a former student of Sunbury Heights Primary School I do understand how hard staff and the school community have worked for many years to try to improve teaching and learning outcomes. Sunbury Heights and Sunbury Downs share a border. The schools work to improve educational opportunities for their students, and they work closely in supporting one another. That is why this opportunity is too hard to pass up.

Last year whilst I was principal for a day at Sunbury Downs I had the opportunity to sit down with Hume City Council and the school to discuss ways we could improve facilities and get better equipment to enhance those learning opportunities. Many of the buildings have not been upgraded since the late 1980s, when Sunbury Downs was built. Fast forward to a couple of months ago, and I understand through the Andrews Labor government’s Shared Facilities Fund the application has gone in signed by both schools and the City of Hume for a shared facility. I am told by Sunbury Heights school principal Kaye Mills and Sunbury Downs school principal Maria Oddo that this facility will be of great benefit to their students. It is a proposed hub to be jointly constructed on the sites of Sunbury Heights Primary School and Sunbury Downs College that will deliver a new modern facility for the benefit and enjoyment of generations to come and of course local residents.

Proposed facility elements include a flexible multipurpose community and activity meeting space, a commercial kitchen, spaces for government and non-government organisations to run training and offer employment support, and space for council-run satellite services. The co-location of community services and programs and voluntary, community and local government service providers is certainly something I support, and tonight I ask the minister to approve the application to the Shared Facilities Fund.