Page 2547 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 8 August 1990
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where it is relevant to local needs and where it can react to local events. The small scale and the local nature of the neighbourhood school encourages an environment in which parents are actively involved in the school, and where the children can form friendships with other students from their own suburb.
Also, of course, the neighbourhood school allows children to walk safely to their school. Footpaths, walkways and underpasses under roads have all been designed in most Canberra suburbs to allow access to the neighbourhood school. An example of this is set out in a submission to Mr Humphries from the Weetangera Primary School Board and the P and C. Many of the school closures announced by the Government will result in children's safety being put at risk by forcing them to cross busy arterial roads if they travel to school on foot. The alternative, of course, is that parents will be required to spend more money, either on bus travel if their child is old enough to travel alone, or on driving their children to school if they have a car. And, of course, not all Canberra families do. The disruption and logistical problems if both parents are in the paid work force are easy to imagine. The Government decision thus represents a transfer of costs from the budget to off-budget expenditure by individual families.
The other economic aspect which I wish to mention is the close relationship between neighbourhood schools and neighbourhood shops and other small businesses. The experience at Downer following the closure of the Downer Primary School two years ago is a graphic illustration. The shopkeepers report that the closure of the school has greatly reduced the passing trade from parents taking their children to and from school. Once parents use a car to take their children further afield, they are more likely to shop elsewhere.
Other local services such as doctors and service stations are also likely to suffer, and in fact have suffered in those areas where the schools have been closed. The loss of these local services is not merely the destruction of one or more people's business or the loss of the convenient local shops for some people in the suburbs. For elderly people, for people with disabilities and people who cannot afford their own car, it may mean that they have to move house to a suburb which retains those services around its local school.
The other aspect of the school closures which is raised by this Bill is the decision making process. We have seen statements of principle by the Residents Rally and other members which have changed from day to day and week to week. "No school closures" became "no schools closed without good reason". A bit of a departure. But no matter how much they have pretended that they oppose the closures, the crunch has come with the Government's decision. Now, they must either support the decision or oppose it and the public is demanding an answer.
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