One Nation pitches Wonthaggi health training precinct

ONE Nation’s Bass candidate Nikole Schellekens has pledged to turn the former Wonthaggi Secondary College site into a health and allied health education precinct.

It heads a list of recent local election commitments from Ms Schellekens that also includes the Wonthaggi Life Saving Club rebuild, a new home for the National Vietnam Veterans Museum and more mountain bike trails across Bass Coast.

The precinct would bring universities, TAFEs and other training providers to the McBride Avenue site, working with Bayside Health, Wonthaggi Hospital and local health services to deliver education and training closer to home.

“We can spend hundreds of millions of dollars building and expanding hospitals, but those buildings are only as good as the workforce available to operate them,” Ms Schellekens said.

“A new ward means very little if we don’t have the nurses to staff it.”

One Nation said the roughly 1.8-hectare site had remained largely unused since the school relocated in 2019 and was still under Victorian Government management.

“We’ve got nearly two hectares of government-owned education land sitting in the heart of Wonthaggi, while local people are travelling significant distances to study and our health services need skilled workers,” Ms Schellekens said.

The precinct would focus on vocational and tertiary courses in health and allied health, including nursing, midwifery, paramedicine, physiotherapy, psychology, mental health, aged care and community services.

Rather than a new standalone university or TAFE, it would be a shared location where established providers could deliver courses and practical training, with links to local clinical placements and jobs.

“Not everyone can pack up their lives and move to Melbourne to study,” Ms Schellekens said.

“We have young people who want careers in health, parents looking to retrain and people already working in our community who want to upskill.”

The Wonthaggi Life Saving Club’s Bay Beach facilities at Cape Paterson were badly damaged in a severe storm and flash flooding in May 2019, and volunteer lifesavers are still operating from temporary accommodation seven years later.

The State Government committed $4.5 million towards a new clubhouse in its 2021-22 budget.

Ms Schellekens said her commitment was to back the rebuild and advocate for the State Government, Life Saving Victoria, Bass Coast Shire Council and the club to work together to secure the remaining funding and progress delivery.

“Seven years is a long time to ask volunteers to operate from temporary facilities, particularly when their job is to keep our families and visitors safe,” she said.

She has also met the National Vietnam Veterans Museum’s chief executive and board members, with the museum still operating out of an ageing aircraft hangar in Newhaven four years after $10 million was announced towards a new purpose-built home on Phillip Island.

The Andrews Labor Government announced the funding on Vietnam Veterans Day in 2022, while the Liberals and Nationals also committed funding to the museum at that year’s election.

Ms Schellekens said One Nation would work with the museum to establish the status of existing State and Commonwealth funding commitments and identify the funding pathway needed to get the project moving.

“We cannot rewrite the way Vietnam veterans were treated when they came home.

“But we can decide how we treat them now,” she said.

After meeting the Bass Coast Mountain Bike Association, which helped deliver Phillip Island’s new Sunset Strip Bike Jump Park, Ms Schellekens also committed to supporting the staged rollout of council’s Mountain Bike, BMX and Pump Track Implementation Plan, including proposed developments at Gap Road on Phillip Island and the State Coal Mine area in Wonthaggi.

“We spend so much time worrying about kids being glued to screens.

“Here we have something that gets them outside, moving, challenging themselves and spending time with their mates,” she said.

The state election will be held on Saturday November 28.