May 13, 2009 video message transcript
Hello I'm very pleased to be able to tell you that as part of yesterday's budget announcement, the Government committed to support La Trobe University in two major infrastructure developments. These are the $98 million La Trobe Institute of Molecular Science and the $60 million La Trobe Regional Health School.
The Institute for Molecular Science will be a major new research and teaching facility to be constructed on the Bundoora campus. This will provide new research facilities for our staff in biotechnology and molecular science focussing on a broad range of medical related research. It will also provide a training facility for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers and also new research laboratories for undergraduate and graduate level students.
The La Trobe Rural Health School will be built in Bendigo, in part on the hospital site as a clinical school for our nursing and allied health students and in part on the University campus. This will provide a new facility not only for additional staff in health sciences but also for over 700 additional students in nursing and allied health that we will be admitting in Bendigo to our University and whom we will be training to make a major addition to the rural and regional health workforce in Victoria.
These major investments, indeed the largest investments by the Federal Government in this University since we were established in 1967 demonstrate the Government's faith in the University and confidence in the vision that we have set ourselves for the next ten years. That is a vision to grow the University to develop world class teaching and research that really makes a difference both for regional and rural Victoria, for metropolitan Melbourne and for Australian society more generally.
It's been a lot of work to put these applications together, work done by large numbers of people across the University at very short notice. The professionalism and commitment of all the staff involved was tremendous and I'd like to thank each and every one of you who have ensured that we can benefit from this major capital injection from the Government. It shows that this University is at a turning point, indeed I think we've moved past the turning point we're now on a road to a new path; a new path of growth, success and national and international recognition.
Thanks very much for all your support for everyone who's been involved in getting these bids up to the point of being successful. We now all have a lot of hard work to spend the Government's money and to spend it in a successful and productive manner; and of course I hope I'll be working with all of you to make further applications to the Government so that we can continue to build success for La Trobe.
Thank you.