SCHOOL PRIDE ASSET PROGRAM

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:52): Yesterday I had the great pleasure of embarking on something of a lightning tour of the primary and high schools in my electorate, delivering letters from the Minister for Education detailing funding available under the latest round of the government's School Pride Asset Program.

It was a great opportunity to not only let them know about this funding but to also touch base again with the school leaders which, like most of us, I try to do as often as I possibly can. Funding for these schools ranged from some simple compliance issues around warm water provision (which the member for Light and I were just discussing) to significant upgrades in things like air conditioning and flooring. I was particularly pleased that Fremont high school—my old school, though it has since been moved to a different site and razed to the ground—received enough funding to significantly improve the air conditioning in some of their learning areas. This is long overdue and I am really pleased that it has happened.

I was also really pleased that a significant amount was set aside to replace ageing flooring in the Surrey Downs Community Children's Centre and, as an aside, I want to commend the director of that centre, Ann Morrison, on her good work with local kids and her commitment to the continued improvement of that centre. I was most pleased, however, with the funding made available to Salisbury Park primary for a security fence around the school learning areas. I raised the issue of these security fences in my maiden speech in this place because I think they are important.

It became clear to me as I moved around the electorate and I visited local schools, including the one attended by my son, who, fortuitously and unexpectedly is in the chamber today, that these fences actually work. They do not make the schools look like prisons as some people feared. In fact, they are more aesthetically pleasing than the old waist-high fences that most of us are familiar with. They reduce graffiti and vandalism because we know that these are opportunistic offences committed largely by people passing through a school property. So, I was particularly happy that Salisbury Park primary is getting one of these fences.

Graffiti has been an issue in this specific area for a long time. In fact, when I go from place to place holding street corner meetings as most of us do, it is always in Salisbury Park that I get the largest and most vocal turn out. What they overwhelmingly tell me is that they are concerned with what we might call petty crime. Such was the message I was getting that I chose Salisbury Park Primary School to host the first of, what I hope will be, many community safety forums in my electorate. At this forum I was lucky to be joined by the Attorney-General and the meeting was well attended by local residents and parents, including members of neighbourhood watch groups from outside the area.

While the Attorney was happy to talk about larger issues—bikies and the public integrity commission—it quickly became clear that local issues like graffiti, hoon driving and particularly monkey bikes were what concerned people most.

The meeting has instigated an ongoing conversation with local police and the Salisbury council around Salisbury Park in particular. I do not believe that crime rates are any higher in Salisbury Park than in any of its neighbouring suburbs—and my belief is borne out by discussions I have had with police since then—but the perception is certainly there. It has to be said that graffiti and antisocial riding of monkey bikes in particular are a problem that all of us out there need to address. When I say 'out there', I mean in Salisbury Park in particular. So, we are talking to police and we are talking to council, and now this security fence will be an enormous boost to our efforts in Salisbury Park.

Fortuitously, this morning Nick Champion, the federal member for Wakefield, officially opened the new school library at Salisbury Park Primary School. The school community is delighted with this $2 million dollar investment. As I go around to the schools in my electorate, despite scaremongering in some quarters, every school leader and every school community that I speak to are delighted with the Building the Education Revolution investments in their schools.

Mr Piccolo interjecting:

Mr ODENWALDER: That is right, and I have had discussions again with the member for Light about this very thing. They are overwhelmingly delighted with these investments. I hope that the new fence at Salisbury Park Primary School—as minor as it may sound to others—will keep this valuable investment safe from vandals so that it can be an asset to my community for many years to come.