The Baillieu Government has had 16 months to honour the pre-election commitment of its candidate, Andrew Elsbury, that funding must be made available immediately to complete the upgrade of Werribee Secondary College (WSC).

In a pre-election media release dated 20 October 2010, Mr Elsbury stated “it is essential that funding be made available in the current round for the Building Futures Program” (for the completion of the WSC upgrade).

A day earlier, then Education Minister Bronwyn Pike had written to the WSC School Council President and confirmed that WSC had “been invited into Building Futures, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s process to plan for new school infrastructure. The Department will continue to work closely with your school on the plans for further capital improvements.”

This inclusion in Building Futures meant that in addition to Labor’s $12.86 million provided for capital works for Stages 1 and 2 of the school’s master plan and a further $200,000 towards the gymnasium refurbishment, further planning funding was also made available. This, in effect, assured the school that the final stage of capital funding would be provided.

However, the school appears to have been forgotten by the Baillieu Government since their pre-election calls for Labor to fund WSC’s rebuild. Since his election to the Legislative Council, Mr Elsbury has not mentioned the issue once, either in Parliament or in the media.

State Member for Tarneit, Tim Pallas, has continued to advocate for the rebuild to be completed since the election of the Baillieu Government, including statements to Parliament prior to the 2011-12 Budget and most recently on 27 March 2012.

In a letter to the Education Minister Martin Dixon, Mr Pallas has called upon the Government to “immediately honour [its] pre-election commitment and the Department’s normal capital allocation processes and fund the final stage of capital works for Werribee Secondary College.”