Ministers make the rounds
AN INSPECTION of the $5.7 million Wilsonton State High School hall ended Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s visit to the Garden City as her government ministers laid out the funds for various projects and programs.
As Ms Palaszczuk was joined by Education Minister Kate Jones at the school, a $500,000 pledge was made to support the Advancing Regional Innovation program.
It will total $1 million over three years.
“The Darling Downs and Maranoa ARIP project will target local communities across the region with grassroots activities that will include town-hall style events and hackathons,” Innovation and Small Business Minister Leeanne Enoch said.
“Businesses in the region are keen to ride the innovation wave and will be able to do that through this program which support innovative businesses, entrepreneurs and start-ups.”
Ms Enoch delivered $100,000 to Laidley cladding firm Streamline Architectural Solutions and Toowoomba’s 1300 Web Pro under the Advance Queensland Ignite Ideas Fund.
Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman pledged $1.6m to the Uniting Care Community over the next five years to help deliver to Toowoomba a new Intensive Family Support service.
“These services are designed to provide targeted an intensive support to families before they reach crisis point and reduce the number of children and young people who need to go into care,” Ms Fentiman said.
Employment and Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace visited two city employers that signed up to the State Government’s Back to Work program, including Integrated Mobile Bookkeeping and PCB Computers.
And Harristown State High School was named a trial site for plans to scrap the existing multiple choice learner licence test to be replaced with a high-tech online course, PrepL.
“Students won’t just learn the road rules with PrepL, they’ll learn why the rules exist, and in a virtual environment, they will experience the consequences of poor driving behaviour,” he said.