On Thursday 18 September 2025 I gave a speech on the need for new and expanded school facilities to accommodate the growing population in my electorate of Maiwar (Brisbane's inner west). You can read my full speech below, or in the official Parliamentary record of proceedings (Hansard).
As much as I might like to have a go at the disgraceful performance from the LNP in here tonight, I do have to get on the record some thoughts about local schools. I am becoming increasingly tired of successive governments failing to plan properly and engage with the schools in my community about what they need. I am growing tired of the piecemeal planning that is always playing catch-up with population growth. This LNP government is still relatively new, so I am asking them now to change this trend and to start taking long-term planning seriously for schools in Brisbane's inner west.
Here is a suggested first step: meet with the locals at and around Toowong State School. I know they have been asking the planning and education ministers to do just this. We have been waiting years for this new infrastructure plan at Toowong, and I am genuinely glad it is finally progressing, but perhaps because it is so long overdue, it seems rushed and ill thought out. The latest plan completely overlooks the need for enough open play space for kids or the fact that the tuckshop and the library are already not fit for purpose at current enrolment levels. For some reason, the department is ignoring P&C suggestions to redevelop the lower campus which would mean more space for Toowong kids and less traffic congestion during pick-up and drop-off times. There is no active travel planning going on either. Again and again, it is planning for the next three years, not the next decade.
Another great example of this is what is going on at Indooroopilly State High School right now. Indro High is an absolutely outstanding school. I can say this as a parent and as the local member, but it is bursting at the seams. The solution so far has been to just stack a bunch of demountables on the oval and crack down on out-of-catchment enrolments, even for specialist programs at the school, but there is no denying now that we need new buildings. Mercifully, we finally have some plans for infrastructure, which is great, but for reasons I absolutely cannot understand, they are based on projected enrolments of 2,500 students. There are already around 3,000 students at Indooroopilly High School. Meanwhile there is still nothing—zero—in actual funding for new buildings at Indooroopilly and no detailed plans for three out of the four proposed projects. The government moves quickly when it wants to, so why are we not a priority? Why are my community's kids always at the bottom of the list?
Brisbane's inner west was promised a new primary school years ago but for some time now it has been radio silence from the government. Now let me remind the minister because I took notes. I met with his office in December last year and asked for an update on the new school. At the time I was told it was 'definitely going ahead', they just needed to find a site. Fair enough if it took a few months to get across the portfolio but, frankly, I am running out of patience. I want to work constructively with the government to get this new school for the west side. I have been trying and working for years. I very much hope I will be hearing from the government soon on the progress of the new school because the problem is not going away. Minister, you know where to find me.