Maffra & District, Clifton Creek Community, East Gippsland Network, Far East Victoria, Glenaladale and Avon Landcare groups and networks will receive a fixed grant of up to $50,000 a year to fund a facilitator position under the Victorian Coalition Government’s $12 million Local Landcare Facilitator Initiative, Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull said today.

“Landcare is an amazing grass roots movement that harnesses individuals and groups from a variety of backgrounds from kids to retirees, office workers to farmers, CEO’s to students and this funding will greatly assist them in continuing their important environmental work,” Mr Bull said.

“The funding of Landcare facilitators was a pre-election commitment we are delivering on and I recently joined the Environment Minister, Ryan Smith to look at some of the great achievements in East Gippsland, including the Brownlow property.

“Recruiting from within the local community means the facilitators will have a good understanding of the local area and issues and will be able to work more closely with their local groups,” Mr Bull said.

Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Ryan Smith said “Landcare has had 25 strong years of providing support for our environment and the Government wanted to show support on its 25th anniversary to recognise those individual and group efforts.”

“The facilitators will play a vital role in supporting Landcare groups in on-ground delivery, building community capacity and partnerships and assisting with advice on project development.

“The 60 new Landcare facilitator positions will deliver on yet another Coalition Government election commitment and, in combination with the additional $600,000 in funding announced in July, this demonstrates the government’s strong commitment to Landcare in their 25th anniversary year.

“This significant four-year investment from the Coalition Government will enable 60 Landcare groups and networks to start recruiting facilitators,” Minister Smith said.

“We recognise and acknowledge the work of these local dedicated volunteers and groups who are devoted to making sure East Gippsland’s natural environment is protected and restored for future generations to enjoy,” Mr Bull said.

For more information about Landcare, please visit .

Airly, Cobains, Bundalaguah and Seaspray Primary Schools are among 55 primary schools successful in the intial roll-out of the Victorian government’s $24.3 million five-year maths and science education program, Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull said today.        

“The Victorian Coalition Government is delivering on its election promise to boost the standard of maths and science education, with the first 100 specialists being selected to work in dozens of Victorian government primary schools.

“I am delighted that four East Gippsland schools have been successful in this initial round,” Mr Bull said.

“The maths and science specialists chosen to take part in the program have completed their initial training and the specialists will work intensively with other teachers to make maths and science lessons as exciting as possible.

“Maths and science are subjects that in later school years a lot of students can find heavy going and fall behind when studying.  By providing a program which simplifies how maths and science is taught at primary school age will help those students when progressing to higher education, Mr Bull said. Brenda Talbot, principal of Airly Primary School speaking on behalf of the other joint partner schools said, “we are very excited about the science program which will provide a huge opportunity to promote science in our rural cluster.

“With a dedicated teacher from each school devoting half of their time to the classroom and half to the program, we are very much looking forward to sharing our resources and jointly promoting science and developing a common curriculum,” Ms Talbot said.

Federal Member for Gippsland, Darren Chester said, “by getting students enthusiastic about learning maths and science early on in their schooling, will assist in keeping up their continued interest in those subjects and expand on potential career choices and opportunities when graduating.”

Education Minister, Martin Dixon, said the initiative was aimed at improving teachers’ confidence and ability to teach maths and science and was an important means of increasing students’ participation in the subjects.

“For too long, maths and science has been overlooked in the classroom, leading to a 5.9 per cent drop in enrolments in year 12 VCE Mathematical Methods, a 15.3 per cent drop in Specialist Mathematics and a 2.9 per cent drop in year 12 VCE Chemistry enrolments,” Mr Dixon said.