Mount Gambier Educational Precinct

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (14:50): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on any progress with regard to the educational precinct being developed in Mount Gambier?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:50): I thank the member for Mount Gambier for his question. It is an important one because this state government is not just committed to skills more broadly. We have a particular interest in realising all the potential that clearly exists in the South-East of our state, particularly in and around the Limestone Coast and more specifically in Mount Gambier. We went to the election with a comprehensive policy for the South-East. Overall, it was a $100 million package.

One of the key focuses of that package, beyond the obvious need to address underfunding in health services around the Limestone Coast, is to invest in the opportunity to grow the economy within that area. There are a range of industries in and around the Limestone Coast that are truly world leading, genuinely world leading, whether it be aquaculture, what we see in terms of protein production, more traditional agriculture or indeed the forestry sector, which is why we turned our mind to, what role can state government play in investing in that specifically.

What is clearly obvious on any basic perfunctory analysis is that we need to do more in the area of skills, which is why we committed to an investment of, from memory—I am hoping the member for Mount Gambier will correct me if I get this wrong—$5 million to TAFE in Mount Gambier. But then there is also what can we do prior to that. The state government has a policy in respect to building five brand-new technical colleges, one of which is set to be in Mount Gambier.

The original plan was to build it at one particular high school. On the back of advocacy, not least from the member for Mount Gambier along with others in the community, we decided to change that from building the technical college at the high school to building it at the location of the TAFE site. There were a range of synergies there that spoke to the virtue of that. Quite separately, the state government had yet another policy to invest in a Forestry Centre of Excellence. From memory, that policy was $15 million. We had to identify a location to build that too.

As it turns out, what has become evident since the election is that we do not want to do each of these things on their own. We should actually put a degree of planning around it to make sure that this investment, which adds up to $59 million between those three policies, realises as much potential as we can in terms of the sum of the parts. What the state government has decided to do, again as a result of advocacy from the local community, including the member for Mount Gambier, is appoint someone to conduct a piece of work to coordinate that policy effort to get the best possible outcome.

I am pleased to report to the house that the government has appointed the Hon. Kevin Scarce AC to undertake that effort. He will be leading that for the state government to make sure individual decisions that are made, whether they be around curriculum, particular offerings, the nature of the upgrades or the investment in the capital, are all done with a view to maximising the outcome of those policies put together.

We want the Hon. Kevin Scarce to be able to complete that work in a short time so that the government can actually get on with building those facilities in line with the time lines we committed to at the election—which include, of course, having that technical college, the centre for excellence, and the upgraded TAFE completed before the beginning of 2026.

We are on track to deliver that, and I thank the member for Mount Gambier for his interest in this area. We look forward to the Scarce review being concluded in due course.