Congratulations to Ballarat International Foto Biennale artistic director and CEO, Fiona Sweet, the board and BIFB team for the amazing 2021 biennale, which opens exclusively to regional Victorians this week.

The Victorian Government is ramping up delivery of the Big Housing Build across the state with the first allocation of funds to community housing projects – with more than $1 billion in projects to commence this year.The Government is investing over $20 million in Ballarat delivering 89 new social housing homes across 9 projects creating more than 250 local jobs.

I am pleased to support the Racing Amendment Bill 2021 and welcome that it is being supported by the opposition.As the member for Wendouree, my electorate is home to the Ballarat and District Trotting Club and the Ballarat Greyhound Racing Club in Redan, and the Ballarat Turf Club is just out of my electorate in Miners Rest. I am a proud member and supporter of the Ballarat Turf Club and the Ballarat and District Trotting Club.

I am very pleased, and also very proud, to support the Social Services Regulation Bill 2021.I would like to begin by thanking the Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers for introducing this bill, as well as his hardworking ministerial office. Additionally, and perhaps most of all, I would like to acknowledge some very special people at the newly formed Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, for their work in crafting the legislation we have here today.

I am pleased to report on the recently tabled Legislative Assembly Economy and Infrastructure Committee Inquiry into Access to TAFE for Learners with Disability. I am incredibly proud to have been a part of this important inquiry that has identified that learners with disability face barriers to equal participation in our TAFE sector.

Students at Forest St Primary School in Wendouree are a step closer to getting the facilities they need for a great start in life, with an architect appointed to design the school’s exciting upgrade.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the many events that we have missed in Ballarat due to the COVID pandemic, and also the grace and generosity in the way the many organisers have readjusted plans and moved things online wherever possible.

Women from a range of diverse multicultural backgrounds will be able to support their business aspirations at a new fit-for-purpose hub in Ballarat, backed by funding from the Victorian Government.

The Victorian Government is creating extra kinder places in Ballarat with a boost to early education infrastructure ─ making sure young children in the area can access and enjoy Three-Year-Old Kinder.

Member for Buninyong Michaela Settle and Member for Wendouree Juliana Addison welcomed the expansion of the Regional Rail Revival Design Challenge 2050 competition into local schools.

Almost 500 jobseekers enrolled in the Andrews Labor Government’s Free TAFE initiative at Federation TAFE last year, making rewarding career pathways a reality for thousands of Victorians.

I thank Ms Addison for the invitation to visit her electorate of Wendouree. I would like to acknowledge the COVID response efforts of health care workers from Ballarat Health Services and Ballarat Community Health and thank them for their dedication and hard work. 

Firstly, I wish to commend Mount Rowan Secondary College’s staff for the invaluable contribution that they make to the school community. I acknowledge their commitment to providing an exceptional learning environment where students are engaged, stimulated, and encouraged to be creative thinkers.

I wish to congratulate the current and former VCE students from schools in my electorate of Wendouree who have been honoured in the 2020 Premier’s VCE Awards. These awards acknowledge the academic excellence of the students during a year of great instability and uncertainty as a result of the COVID pandemic and remote learning. I offer my congratulations to Loreto College Ballarat dux Sarah Harrington on achieving 99.95. In recognition she has received a top all-rounder VCE high achievers award, one of only 23 in the state.

My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is for the minister to visit my electorate of Wendouree to celebrate the practical completion of works at Mount Rowan Secondary College. The minister is no stranger to Mount Rowan Secondary College, having visited the school on several occasions to see progress of our record investment into the school’s redevelopment. The Andrews Labor government most recently provided over $3.5 million in the 2019 state budget to upgrade and modernise school facilities.

I rise to contribute to today’s matter of public importance discussion and talk about issues pertaining to women and Aboriginal Victorians in our justice system and corrections system. I am very pleased to see that we have a former Minister for Corrections, the member for Niddrie, sitting at the table, who did very, very good work in terms of the first year and a bit of this government. I really want to thank the minister for the great work and the leadership he showed in this sector in terms of crime prevention, in terms of corrections and in terms of all that he did. You were a very, very good minister, so thank you very much for that.