ALP candidate for Goulburn Ursula Stephens announced the funding alongside NSW Shadow Minister for Education Ryan Park at Yass High yesterday morning.

The Murrumbateman primary school will also include before and after-school care facilities to make life easier for busy working parents – part of Labor’s Building the Schools of the Future policy.

Councillor Jasmin Jones has been a big advocate for education in the Yass Valley and said that Yass High School population has reached 520 for 2015 with the department conservatively predicting an advance to 554 by 2019. 

“I am very thrilled with the response and happy to hear that it is being matched by the Shadow Minister and the Labor party. I would like to see all the other candidates make similar commitments to make education a priority in the Yass Valley,” Cr Jones said.  

Funding for the new school will come from Labor’s additional $1.3 billion fund to build and improve schools and TAFE, as part of Labor’s A Better Way infrastructure program. This is on top of the current budget for school and TAFE capital works.

However, Liberal candidate Pru Goward is calling the move an ‘eleventh-hour school promise’. 

She believes it has been cynically announced and comes after Labor had already submitted its election commitments to the Parliamentary Budget Office, with no mention of any new school.

“I know there are many families in Murrumbateman who would love a primary school in the village. What they want is a serious commitment, not something drawn up on the back of an envelope as a last-ditch attempt to buy votes,” Ms Goward said.

“If Labor was truly serious about a new school for Murrumbateman, they would have submitted their proposal to the Parliamentary Budget Office for costing.”

She said the community could not trust Labor’s last-ditch ‘fairy dust,’ nor could they trust the Labor candidate who only a week ago said “I’m not prepared to buy your vote. You don’t want pork barrelling, you want honesty and integrity.”

“Even though Murrumbateman is only just becoming part of the Goulburn electorate this year, if I am elected this Saturday I will fight tooth and nail for this school. I will personally go and pick the Education Minister up in my car and bring him to town if I have to."

Ms Stephens said the Liberal Party has had many chances to make commitments, but has failed to do so.

“I have brought the Shadow Minister here and have prioritised Murrumbateman, it has bought the school to the forefront. Whether we win the election or not, something will be done about education in the Yass Valley.”

State Treasurer Andrew Constance described the announcement as a cynical, vote-buying exercise. 

“I think the community can smell a rat, this policy was not put through parliamentary budget office as far as I can see … we cannot see a Murrumbateman school,” Mr Constance said.  

“It seems a little odd that literally three to four days before an election the Labor party have come out with this announcement, with no planning or assessment and I think the community will see it as cynical exercise and last minute vote-buying.”

He said the government has set aside schools as a result of the Mike Baird government and it should provide flexibility for communities such as the Yass Valley.  

However, Mr Park believes in Labor’s new approach to public schools – providing modern 21st century educational infrastructure to support growing communities.

“Mike Baird and the Liberals stand in front of schools, hospitals and roads and say they won’t upgrade them unless the community backs their risky plan to privatise our electricity network,” he said. 

“We don’t need to resort to Mike Baird’s blackmail to build the schools, hospitals and roads our state needs – our plans for Yass and Murrumbateman are fully-funded."

Ms Stephens said due to Murrumbateman's growth and the community’s strong campaigning to keep their kids from travelling the Barton Highway, Labor will deliver this school which will become the focus of the community.

"Labor has a fully-funded infrastructure plan that will keep our electricity network in public hands and build the schools that our region needs."