Bendigo East candidates forum 2018: Public school upgrades, residential growth in suburbs, Safe Schools

Why are there not enough bus routes into new areas of Epsom where hundreds of new residents will be living? Has the government been doing enough to make sure infrastructure development, particularly Epsom-Huntly way, keeps pace with growing areas of Bendigo?

Ian Ellis (Liberal)

One thing I think we’re going to experience in the very near future is similar congestion to Melbourne. We’ve got it starting now.

We have a lot of large vehicles going through Bendigo that shouldn’t be there, wouldn’t be there, if we had an alternative.

As far as public transport out in Epsom-Huntly, as Huntly develops, there’s not really much out there at all as far as public transport goes.

It’s only recently that bus routes have been extended in Epsom.

Jacinta Allan (Labor)

Whether it’s Epsom, or indeed other growing communities around Bendigo that would also like to see increased public transport, absolutely we work very hard to try to keep up with that growth and indeed a couple of years ago we added a big number of services to the Bendigo timetable, including to places like Epsom.

I remember a few years before that advocating to get bus services for the first time to Huntly and Goornong. And what we are offering to those communities should we be elected as part of Bendigo Metro III, is put train stations at Huntly and Goornong to provide train services to complement those bus services.

That’s only an offering that’s coming from the Labor Party to those communities. It is an area where you’ve got to keep up, you’ve go to keep pedalling. It’s not an area that you cut funding to, you’ve got to keep investing.

You’ve got to keep putting on bus services, putting on train services, investing to keep up with the ongoing demand for public transport.

While also recognising that particularly in regional areas, a lot of that public transport travels on roads - that’s why we’ve had record investment on our regional roads as well - the biggest ever investment on roads over the past four years.

Again, always more to do on regional roads because that’s a big job as well.

Gaelle Broad (Nationals)

It’s actually the Liberal-Nationals that built the Epsom station that is being well-utilised, so that is a positive.

In the one term that we were in, there were quite a number of achievements made in that time including the Bendigo Hospital, which has since been built.

What this points to is that we have much greater population growth in our area than we’ve had before. We haven’t planned for that growth.

We have schools right around our region at the moment, I’ve spoken to quite a number of them, that are bursting at the seams.

At the moment they’re all coming towards one funnel of the 11 and 12 at Bendigo Senior Secondary College, so that is now the same size as La Trobe University campus - we’ve got about 1600 students there.

I think that’s the type of thing we need to be looking at in the future. Do we have the right infrastructure in place? Do we have enough space for these students that are coming through as they coming to grow?

I think we certainly need to be looking at that (another senior secondary college) as a real priority because to have it all funnelling into one is huge. The size of the schools we see around our region now - they’ve gone from 400 to 600 students, some are up to 800 students, and they’re all getting older.

We are heading towards something that we need to do something about now.

Helen Leach (DLP)

(It can be solved) by building more schools. Strathfieldsaye has been bursting at the seams for years out there. They could have done with a new school out there already, but I don’t hear anything in the pipeline for Strathfieldsaye even though there’s a whole lot of building out there - new housing estates

Epsom - they should really have built a different primary school instead of just adding on a bit to Epsom in Howard Street. They should have picked a much better site because that’s very dangerous on Howard Street - and another school more towards Huntly to accommodate the hugely growing population out there.

Jacinta Allan

It’s only Labor that has committed to building new school buildings at White Hills Primary School. I haven’t seen a matching commitment from any candidate at this stage.

I’ve also already seen building works at Spring Gully, building works about to start at Big Hill, there’s a number of schools in the Bendigo West electorate as well.

We talked before about plans when you came into government. The former Liberal-National government cut a billion dollars out of education and didn’t open new schools - there were no new schools opened in 2016 because the forward planning hadn’t been done.

I’m not saying Labor is perfect, but there’s always a lot to do and it seems like there’s always more to do for Labor governments when we come in and have to repair the damage.

Things like the education maintenance allowance was cut. This is funding to help the neediest kids to get to school - that was cut by the former government.

These are the sorts of investment we need to make, alongside the new buildings. You also need to invest in what goes on in those buildings - whether it’s nurses and paramedics, or teachers and support systems for schools.

It’s about what goes on inside those buildings.

Helen Leach

What’s going on in our schools is a Labor plan to turn all of our kids into transgenders.

Jacinta Allan

Every child, Helen?

Helen Leach

Well that was a hyperbole.

The Safe Schools Coalition Victoria, and Building Respectful Relationships, which is a Labor-funded program at the moment to introduce sexualisation of children, gender fluid theory and it is working because there’s been about a 5000 per cent increase of children who think that they’re a different gender, not the one that they were born into.

And now the Royal Children’s Hospital is experiencing 1000 per cent increase in children because they’re being confused by these programs. I think it’s absolutely deplorable.

That is one thing that they should absolutely be ashamed of, for confusing children, not letting children be children.

Doctors in schools just follows on from that, because it actually separates children from parents. It usurps parents’ parental rights and I think they’re planning lawyers in schools.

When a child subjected to these terrible programs they get confused, and they say you don’t have to tell mum and dad that you think you’re a bit different, you can just go and see the doctor, or you can just go and see the lawyer.

This is disgraceful by Jacinta’s Labor government.

Jacinta Allan

Helen’s just made a whole bunch of claims and associated them with “Jacinta’s Labor government”.

It’s almost beneath responding to the sort of disgraceful claims that Helen has just made.

They’re false, they’re scare mongering. I have a daughter in public school who has just started this year and they have the Respectful Relationships Program in their school, and it’s a wonderful program about teaching people respect.

I reckon, for the six of us sitting around this table tonight, that’s something that we should be celebrating that goes on in our schools.

Helen Leach

Well I’ve spoken to teachers and that’s not… what Jacinta is portraying. The teacher has children in a public school too, and she teaches in a public school, and she told me only yesterday that that’s why she voted for me, she thinks that’s a terrible program.

Nakita Thomson (Greens)

The claim that was just made comes from a place of bigotry. A 5000 per cent increase in transgenders I don’t think is an accurate statistic. Where did you get that statistic from?

Helen Leach

It’s a 5000 per cent increase in the children who are referred to the Royal Children’s Hospital, from what they were a few years ago.

Nakita Thomson

Where did you get that statistic from, I’m asking? What journal article, what source is that statistic from? Because that doesn’t sound true to me.

Helen Leach

You ring up the Royal Children’s Hospital.

Nakita Thomson

I will, I’ll check it out.

I don’t think Helen has ever met a transgender person in her life, because she speaks about them like they’re the devil.

I have transgender friends and I find those to be quite disgusting comments. I think any type of program in schools that teaches kids not to be bigoted or horrible to each other is much needed.

Helen Leach

I’m not saying anything about transgender people at all. I’m saying that this program was touted as an anti-bullying program and it isn’t that at all.

Ian Ellis

No I don’t (support the Safe Schools Program).

The comment I want to make was that the schools that need planning, there’s quite a few of them around Bendigo, and one that is not in Bendigo East that has major issues is Maiden Gully, which was brought to my attention today as I was asked to comment on the amount of portable buildings that it has had for a long time.

Gaelle Broad

I want to make sure that people are aware that there is a clear difference between the parties here as well on the Safe Schools.

I have had a number of parents contact me with concerns about the program that’s been implemented in schools and the Liberal Nationals have made it very clear that we will be abolishing the Safe Schools program and it will be replaced with a program that does focus on teaching kids about respect in relationships.

There is the respect element, but it takes a whole another element out of it, which is what we need.

Michael Belardinelli (Independent)

When I used work in a school, I know that kids are very vulnerable. I know that when I worked in one high school, there’s a lot of teasing that goes on and suicide can result.

I think people need to be very careful about what they say, and how they say it, and just show people respect.

Everyone has got an idea on it, but just talk civilly.

(on public transport...)

Buses are a given, trains are great to get people there.

My concern about the school at Epsom is how it’s a truck route and kids are out in the playground playing, diesel is spewing out which has been rated as more toxic than asbestos.

Diesel has been rated to affect kids’ brains. To make (schools) safe - that’s something we forget.

Jacinta Allan

For those who know the history of the Epsom Primary School, there’s always been a school on Howard Street - Epsom Primary School has always been there.

I know from the conversations that I have had over many years, it wasn’t that long ago that the school had around 150 students.

The numbers that they’re seeing are brought about partly by that growth that we were talking about around Bendigo, partly because there’s now a cap on the number of students at White Hills Primary School, and it’s encouraging students to go to their local neighbourhood school.

Some of the pressures on Epsom - we’re working with the school. We’ve purchased additional land so there’s more recreation space there. We’ve made other commitments to the school to continue to invest in infrastructure.

So the issues with the road - from memory, it’s an interplay between local and state government responsibility for that road. It’s an important road link to the saleyards, which is why there’s some of those truck movements.

It’s a beautiful new school - it looks great. I think in this conversation about Epsom Primary School it’s important not to run the school down, it’s important to talk about it being a great school.

But we do need to continue to work with all schools - Epsom, White Hills, Spring Gully, all of the schools around the Bendigo community.

Part of that is investing and believing in them, not cutting the funding.

Nakita Thomson

From my research as a planning student, most of the congestion traffic in Bendigo is local traffic and we have no bike lanes in our CBD at all and I think we have wide roads. We have the potential to have parking-protected bike lanes.

The Victorian Greens want to invest $340 million in bike infrastructure which could be put towards parking-protected bike lanes in Bendigo which has been proven to encourage people to cycle.

Ian Ellis

Epsom Primary School, I’m well aware of Epsom Primary School. I live in Epsom, my kids went to Epsom Primary School.

Howard Street - back when my kids went to Epsom Primary School - was a rarely-used road. Now it’s an overdimension route, it meets with the Midland Highway which, back when my kids went there, there was no need for traffic lights.

Now, there’s a need for traffic lights. It’s not just stock trucks that use Howard Street, it’s all trucks. One’s that don’t want to go through the centre of Bendigo, it’s their best route.

What is needed for Bendigo is a alternative heavy vehicle route so people that don’t like going through Bendigo when they’re travelling north, that would also alleviate that.

What I would like to see is a route that trucks can use from the Allies Hotel, which has good routes south from there, across to Huntly and that would ease the problems at Epsom Primary School significantly.