The dream of killing two birds with one stone is as old as the boomerang. And the local Greens have come up with the political equivalent – and it’s a winner that deserves to be matched by other parties.
The overlapping electorates of Macnamara in the Commonwealth Parliament and Prahran in the Victorian Legislative Assembly are rarely contested simultaneously – but the timing of the federal election which is due no later than May next year and the shock by-election in Prahran in February have briefly and miraculously aligned the political planets.
Political Venn diagram includes St Kilda’s civic heart
Close to the Southernmost point of the Prahran electorate lies the civic heart of St Kilda, including the St Kilda Library, Town Hall and Primary School.
Heaven knows the Library needs an upgrade but even more important is the Primary School which was left without a community hall in 2021 when it was demolished by the State Government.
In a saga worthy of an ABC Utopia episode, the school hall was demolished as part of the first phase of a reconstruction – but guess what – the second phase has been left unfunded for the last five years.
Hubbub about hub
Meanwhile the parents and community have been lobbying hard for the much-needed community hall, which they call a hub. They have attracted nearly 3,000 signatures on a petition and installed corflute signs across the neighbourhood.
This brouhaha prompted the Greens to pledge that they will ‘push’ for a $10 million dollar investment in St Kilda Primary School if they win the seat of Macnamara.
Greens candidate for Macnamara, Sonya Semmens, said teachers and parents have been crying out for an indoor community hub at St Kilda Primary School for years.
“If elected, the Greens will push for a $10 million dollar investment to get this started.”
A doubter might say this is an empty pledge when you don’t have access to the purse strings, but it is welcome political recognition of the school’s plight that has hitherto fallen between the electoral cracks.
TWiSK expects that the Greens State candidate Angelica Di Camillo will echo the pledge and bring it into the State realm where most school funding comes from.
No doubt other progressives like independent Prahran candidate Tony Lupton will back the hub, and maybe the local Liberal will too. This would add much need oomph to the campaign.
Maybe we need to start a campaign on the Library too!
