Page 2321 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 1 November 1989
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I do not know whether that has been done. What I do know, however, is that the leader of that Belconnen south area preschool advisory group, Mr Thompson, attempted to make an appointment with the Minister and was told that it would be some weeks, possibly not until next year, before he would be able to speak to the Minister.
If this was not bad enough, on 25 October the preschool community was surprised to hear the chief education officer give another very clear undertaking in regard to preschools. I know about that because I, like someone else in this chamber, was present at the time that commitment was made, at Hawker Primary School. Dr Willmot said no preschool with more than 17 students would be closed in 1990. Let me quote Dr Willmot's remarks to the meeting. He said:
The idea of closing viable preschools is nonsense. The Government of this State -
meaning the ACT -
has no intention of closing viable preschools.
He said further:
I do run the Department and I can assure you that the cut-off figure is 17.
There is, I understand, some dispute about whether or not those were the actual words spoken by Dr Willmot. I seek leave, Mr Speaker, to table a transcript of statements made by Dr Willmot at that public meeting on 25 October, from which those two quotes are taken and which indicated very clearly what it was Dr Willmot actually said on that day.
Leave granted.
MR HUMPHRIES: I understand that new enrolment figures are due out today, and I understand that on current figures the lowest enrolment of any school is at Yarralumla, where 18 children are enrolled. That, of course, might change with the new figures. It must be remembered that Yarralumla has places for a maximum of only 20 students. In other words, it is running at about 90 per cent of its capacity, notwithstanding the fact that it is the lowest enrolled preschool. In other words, unless drops occur in the number of enrolments, the chief education officer's promise effectively amounts to a ruling out of any preschool closures in 1990.
The chief education officer and the Government appear to be very sure of one thing, and that is that some preschools will be closed, because apparently they have figures which are not available to the rest of us. If that is the case, I would like to see them. I would like the Minister, in the course of this debate - and I assume he will be speaking in the course of this debate - to table those figures.
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