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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-24 Daily Xml
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Public Works Committee: Hamilton Secondary College Redevelopment

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:39): I move:

That the 119th report of the committee for the Fifty-Fourth Parliament, entitled Hamilton Secondary College Redevelopment Project, be noted.

Hamilton Secondary College is located on Marion Road, Mitchell Park, within the City of Marion. The Department for Education has advised that Hamilton Secondary College offers the SACE Education Certificate Program for adults seeking to complete or return to secondary education. The school also hosts the Mike Roach Space Education Centre, which delivers the only designated secondary school specialist curriculum for space education in our state.

Hamilton Secondary College was allocated funding of $9 million as part of the Department for Education's capital works program announced in October 2017. This funding allocation was confirmed on the change of government in March 2018. The Department for Education has advised that Hamilton Secondary College is further contributing some funds of its own to maximise the opportunity of the build. As a result, the total project funding is $9.165 million.

Hamilton Secondary College requires capital works to provide sufficient capacity to accommodate 900 students on the school site, catering for the transition of year 7 students into high school in 2022. There is also aged infrastructure on the school site that requires refurbishment to support contemporary teaching and learning.

Specifically, the Hamilton Secondary College redevelopment project proposes the following scope of works:

construction of a new performing arts centre, providing flexible areas to enable general and specialist teaching and learning with teacher preparation, storage amenities and a canteen;

the redevelopment of the existing drama and music space to include flexible contemporary learning areas, breakout spaces and independent learning zones;

refurbishment of the resource centre to create multifunctional learning areas, including a year 12 centre; and

creation of an outdoor central plaza, linking the new building to the administration and general teaching areas along with a new covered link to the resource centre.

The works and scope of works will also include refurbishment of general teaching areas to upgrade air conditioning and acoustics, the demolition of aged accommodation, as I earlier foreshadowed, and new landscaping to the Marion Road frontage to improve the school street presence and amenity. The Hamilton Secondary College redevelopment project will be staged with construction expected to commence in October 2020 and be completed during October 2021, so we anticipate those works are now underway.

The committee examined written and oral evidence in relation to this project and received assurances that appropriate consultation in relation to this project has been undertaken. The committee is satisfied that the proposal has been subject to the appropriate agency consultation and does meet the criteria for the examination of projects set out in the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991. Based on the evidence considered and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public works I have outlined to you.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (11:43): It is really exciting to be able to talk in the parliament and reflect on the Public Works Committee's report on the redevelopment of Hamilton Secondary College. This is an investment of a little over $9 million the Marshall Liberal government is making towards the Hamilton Secondary College. It is part of what is now $1.4 billion worth of public school infrastructure works across South Australia as we seek to ensure that we have capacity to support all our students in a way that will encourage them to prosper and thrive and that we can deliver the teaching and learning they deserve.

This project, I have to say, is outstanding bang for buck and value for money in terms of what is being delivered. I commend Totalspace Design, the architects, and Marshall and Brougham, the builders, for the work they are doing and, of course, I commend Peta Kourbelis and her team from Hamilton Secondary College. The infrastructure division within the Department for Education and indeed the Department for Infrastructure and Transport are to be commended for this work and I also acknowledge the great work of Helen Doyle and her team in education.

I have been to visit Hamilton Secondary College a couple of times to see what the project will achieve. The performing arts spaces are going to be an outstanding uplift on what the school currently has. The planetarium that is going to be a part of what the school has to offer is unique, and I think it goes to the heart of one of the things that makes Hamilton Secondary College really special—the space school concept.

Hamilton Secondary College is so well focused on an area of learning that is going to be such an uplift for South Australia's economy in the years ahead, and I think that should give every student and family involved in Hamilton Secondary College a great deal of pride. It should get every family thinking about where their children are going to go to high school, especially if they live in the inner south-western suburbs of Adelaide, a great deal of confidence in considering Hamilton Secondary College.

They have run a space school program at Hamilton Secondary College for a number of years now, since about 2017. I am fairly sure former Minister Susan Close was the minister when that opened up. This is a useful body of work, and I thank the former government for that aspect. That program was able to support not just students at Hamilton but indeed students from surrounding primary schools and other secondary schools in engaging with the Mission to Mars project, where students can play out a number of roles considering potential opportunities for how space missions can work, and a range of different STEM subjects from which they can gain benefit from that hands-on learning.

Taking that to the next level is the charter now. Since the Marshall Liberal government's election and the Premier winning the Australian Space Agency for our state, there has been the development of the SmartSat Collaborative Research Centre, Mission Control and the Space Discovery Centre at Lot Fourteen on North Terrace, not 500 metres from where we stand today. There has been extraordinary burgeoning interest by space industry-related companies in South Australia like Myriota and Inovor—Australian, South Australian companies—making satellites and creating opportunities for data to be transferred between South Australia and space for the benefit of government, for the benefit of farmers and for the benefit of people in bushfire-prone areas.

We now have multinationals like Boeing and a range of others setting up their operations in Australia at Lot Fourteen here in Adelaide, creating extraordinary opportunities in the years ahead with space conferences and all the other space-related industries. Adelaide and South Australia will be the headquarters for the space industry not only in Australia but really in the southern hemisphere, with rocket launches being undertaken on Eyre Peninsula.

I cannot speak enough about the extraordinary opportunities for young South Australians who are interested in careers related to this exciting area of work in the space industries here in South Australia. Once upon a time, not that long ago—I am talking five years, 10 years, certainly when I was at school—young South Australians with these sorts of skills and capabilities, dispositions, knowledge and interest would not have thought of South Australia as a place where they could pursue that career.

I made some friends at university doing astrophysics and other exciting high-technology science-related degrees, and they were able to do that study in South Australia but not one of them got a job in South Australia afterwards. Every single one was thinking, 'Am I going to move to Sydney or Hong Kong or the United States or maybe to Europe?' Now Adelaide is the logical place for the best possible career for those people and they can do that at home with their families.

For any young person thinking about a future career in space industries and the space sector in the most high-tech and in the best geography of high-tech industries in the space sector, South Australia is the place to pursue that future. Hamilton Secondary College is a school that is giving some sort of grip and reality to those dreams from the moment students enter high school in year 7 next year and is supporting primary school students to get an understanding of this in earlier years through those primary schools that continue to visit and support the Hamilton Secondary College Space School program.

In school holidays, we have young scientists in upper secondary levels who engage with the holiday Space School. I have seen these 14, 15, 16 and 17-year-old students engage with astronauts at Hamilton Secondary College, not just Australian astronauts—of course, Andy Thomas is doing a wonderful job—but a number of astronauts who have worked with South Australian companies like Nova Systems. They lend their time to that Space School program and inspire the next generation to think about what sorts of careers they might have in the space industry.

This construction project, with the development of the planetarium and the other enhancements to the Space School program at Hamilton Secondary College, will really take that engagement to the next level, and it is coming at a time when the jobs in this industry are really set to—forgive the pun—skyrocket. I cannot wait to see this work finished. It is going to be October, and I hope the members of the Public Works Committee will think about having a meeting off site, out of Parliament House. Perhaps they can come to the planetarium that we are building at Hamilton Secondary College, the only planetarium in a school in Australia, only the second planetarium in South Australia.

The member for Playford is, of course, well aware that the northern suburbs are well served. This is the first planetarium in the southern suburbs, in the southern half of Adelaide, so when the member for Playford wishes to cross the threshold of Greenhill Road and head south, he can go to the Hamilton Secondary College planetarium. Maybe he can join the Public Works Committee so that he can attend the meeting that I am sure they are now going to have at the planetarium at Hamilton Secondary College.

In this contribution, I have focused very much on the space program at Hamilton, because it more than anything is what makes Hamilton unique, but Hamilton is special for the entire curriculum of teaching and learning and training operations it offers. The refurbishment, of course, is also more than just the space program. The old music and drama buildings are being refurbished into contemporary flexible learning areas. The new performing arts area will, I think, be spectacular—a 152-seat theatre.

The refurbishment of the resource centre is part of the space program. The new plaza, the link to the performing arts building, the refurbishment of other spaces, air conditioning and acoustic upgrades to some buildings, upgrading of the school frontage on Marion Road for street presence, and the demolition and removal of some ageing architecture that is no longer fit for purpose will all enhance the teaching and learning at Hamilton.

The teaching and learning, of course, is part of a broad curriculum that suits students of all dispositions. Whether they be focused on space and science, performing arts and film, or their English or their maths studies, Hamilton Secondary College does a great job. I have a lot of excitement about its future.

The local member of parliament, Carolyn Power, the member for Elder, and Corey Wingard, whose electorate is across the road, are both very strongly engaged with this school. I have joined them at the school on a number of occasions to celebrate their achievements. I cannot wait to see many more in the years ahead.

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:52): As I have earlier emphasised in this place, we are especially grateful to the Minister for Education for seeing through a record capital works program in our state. It is, of course, in part to accommodate the transition of year 7 to high school, but it is far more significant than that. In seeing through this program, he has not only met the needs of existing or current students in our school system but is also ensuring that many future generations will continue to have the best education facilities available to them. I acknowledge his contribution and the contribution of other members and provide the report to the house.

Motion carried.

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