By Casey Neill
Little India, Emerson School and TAFE students are among the local winners in the 2018-’19 State Budget.
Dandenong’s new Indian Cultural Precinct will receive a $300,000 boost as part of an overall $43.6 million spend on multicultural community infrastructure and events and helping migrants settle.
The State Government indicated more Greater Dandenong projects would be announced in the lead-up to the November state election.
Emerson School will receive funding to plan an upgrade, and $50,000 will investigate replacing the roundabout with traffic lights at the Heatherton Road, Lightwood Road and Douglas Street intersection in Noble Park.
Greater Dandenong Councillor Roz Blades welcomed 145 new car parking spaces and 400 sealed car parks for Sandown Railway Station.
“This will be a big help with the extra parking we need with sky rail,” she said.
Dandenong MP Gabrielle Williams said the Free TAFE for Priority Courses project would reduce financial barriers for training in courses that would lead to in-demand jobs.
She said 20 priority non-apprenticeship courses would be included at first, and a further 10 would be confirmed following consultation with industry, in time for students to enrol for the 2019 training year.
Eighteen pre-apprenticeship courses will also be made free of charge.
Head Start Apprenticeships and Traineeships will be introduced at 100 secondary schools, which are yet to be decided.
Students will be able to complete another year of high school and graduate with an apprenticeship or traineeship, ready to start work.
Notably missing from the budget was an order for more trams and trains from Dandenong manufacturer Bombardier.
The VLocity and E-Class projects support more than 1500 jobs across the manufacturing and rail industry supply chain.
But a Bombardier spokeswoman said that despite no explicit order in the budget, the company continued to work with the State Government and Transport for Victoria “on the future pipeline of work for the Dandenong manufacturing facility”.
“Bombardier remains hopeful that they will secure future orders for more VLocity trains and E-Class trams,” she said.
“Bombardier has a long and proud history of local manufacturing in Dandenong, and we will continue to work with the government to grow this footprint.”
