Page 2336 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 1 November 1989
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population at 450,000, yet we see projections again and again for decreases in school population. I believe that in some way or other we are being snowed. I do not know how it is. I am still looking at it, and I hope to find out.
Let me take you now quickly to part-time preschools. The most important factor that many people are missing about our part-time preschools is the access they give parents. I will, for one moment, be anecdotal. I was at home, with a small child and isolated. I can tell you that if you have been a man at home with a baby you would know how isolation feels. I have a great deal of empathy with parents who are in the outer suburbs feeling that same sort of isolation.
The local preschool is a community spot where mums or parents can meet and deal with the sorts of problems that a modern parent - I suppose there have been parents for a long time - has. It provides a facility that goes well beyond preschool education. The important part there is the local preschool. We have to be careful to ensure that whatever amalgamations take place we do not remove the notion of a local preschool.
MRS NOLAN (4.34): I am aware of the time so I shall be brief. I would like to say at the outset that, unlike Mr Humphries, I did not have to wait until I was involved in public life to realise how much value Canberra parents place on their preschools. However, like Dr Kinloch, I commend a bachelor for his actions.
As a mother of two school age children, both of whom have been through their preschool education in Canberra, I fully understand the concerns, especially as during my first year in Canberra I drove - I was lucky enough to have a car - my son from Chapman to preschool in Deakin, four days a week. This was because we arrived in Canberra in late January and the local preschool was already fully booked.
As I said, Mr Speaker, this was not because of closures but because of my late arrival in the city. I am sure that I, more than anyone in this house, fully understand how parents value local preschools. I might add that while driving my son to preschool, I also had a young daughter to contend with. In fact, she was three weeks old when we arrived in the city. My sympathies go out to those mums who have had to cope with some distances between preschool and home.
Preschool education has been handled very badly by this Government, both in the lead-up to the election on 4 May and since, and the title of this matter of public importance, "The Labor Government's confused and inept approach to the future of ACT preschools", is certainly a good description. As Mr Humphries has already said, the Labor Party promised on 14 February, and I quote:
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