Page 1881 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 30 May 1990
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considerable mistakes from time to time. There was a time when it was considered that Narrabundah College needed to close. The passage of time has proved that that is not the case, and it is the same with Deakin High School. There are no small numbers of schools around the town that have been speculated about over a long period as maybe needing to close.
Mr Jensen: That was because of the faulty criteria, Bill.
MR WOOD: No, it was not at all. It was projected that those schools needed to close because the enrolments were going down, as simple as that. I was there; I was fairly closely involved at that time. When you answered an interjection the other day, you had projected yourselves to about five or six years after that. We were talking about two different periods of closure.
Mr Collaery: So you accept that closures happen all the time then in the Territory?
MR WOOD: I am talking about the enrolments going up and down. The fluctuation in enrolments makes it very clear that we have to be cautious about projections, and I think people generally are. Once we close a school and put town houses on the site, or whatever the Government proposes, that school cannot be reopened. People in parts of Canberra can now point to their school where the enrolments are increasing. Planners in days gone by, as I read in the paper today, had expected that the enrolment growth would be rather more rapid, though not as high of course, than has been the case in all of the relatively new areas of Canberra. We have to proceed with caution, but I am not sure that that is what we get.
I want to comment on what Mr Collaery was going on about late in his speech. He seemed concerned about a media release - I believe it to be one that Rosemary Follett put out - headed "Residents Rally now supports school closures". I do not know what his objection to that would be. Let me read the motion that Mr Collaery and other Rally members here today voted against. This is the motion they opposed: "That school closures are unnecessary and will severely diminish the quality of education in the ACT". I think the heading Ms Follett gave to her media statement, that the Rally supports school closures, is - - -
Mr Collaery: Totally illogical.
MR WOOD: Well, that will be for other people to decide. We framed that motion, Mr Collaery, expecting you to support it, because it seemed to be in keeping with what your party supporters were saying. We proposed a motion today saying we oppose school closures. Now, if you proposed that, I would have expected our support, but I do not see now, Mr Collaery, how you can possibly complain about Ms Follett's statement. It seems entirely accurate.
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