I rise to talk about a burning issue in the seat of Keilor, particularly in the areas of Hillside, Caroline Springs and Taylors Hill, and it is with regard to a lack of secondary school places. I put on the record my congratulations to a fantastic group of parents who are out every Saturday rallying very hard to collect signatures for a petition to try to get more secondary school places funded in their area. In particular I acknowledge Sally Forsyth, Cefar, Michelle Mendes and Eva Fattore for all their hard work. In the next few years there are going to be an additional 30 000 new homes built in the Plumpton, Taylors Hill, Kororoit and Rockbank areas, which is likely to bring 78 000 new residents to the area.

A new secondary school site needs to be prioritised in this growing area, because I fear that the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has lagged behind in its commitment to deliver secondary places in a local setting for our school kids. One local secondary school is already at capacity. Currently three P-9 schools feed into that school. We have also recently experienced bus route changes that are making it very difficult for kids to have direct connections to their local schools. With all the new growth under way and the increased growth which we face within the next few years, this is the time when we need to match the resources with the needs of our local kids and local education.