Page 2607 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 8 August 1990
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Canberra community to use and out of this problem of financial difficulty in the ACT we could create a solution that would be a standard for the rest of Australia where there was true, genuine and full community involvement in what happens in their government. I commend the principle of consultation and working together to all members.
MR WOOD (3.33): Again today I want to use this occasion - a debate on education - to relate something I heard last night at Lyons Primary School. It was there I heard a worried group of parents discussing the ways that they could work to keep their school open. I relate the words of a very aggrieved parent as well as I can remember them. I will not be able to impart the passion that she did because she was involved and, of course, I am not. She said, "The school does not have to prove anything; we do not have to justify its existence. It is the Government which is accountable to the parents and to the children for the disruption and the distress caused by the closures". She was wondering why she had to feel so anxious for what was happening; she was looking at her child and it hit her - it was the Government that was accountable, not her.
Today I want to give just a few case histories to focus on the children, the parents and the teachers who are concerned in this. We have had ample debate here, although not enough obviously for the Government to admit its errors. We have had much debate on the faulty economics of it; let us now look at a few stories about how people are going to be affected. These cases are only representative because thousands of children, their parents, their teachers and the community will be affected.
Just a few stories will demonstrate the enormous damage and distress that is occurring. I am sure Mr Humphries and other members have heard, as I have, as we travel around these meetings, statements like, "Ours is the best school" and "My children have done so well, I am proud of them and their school". Think of the pride and affection that is so constantly expressed at these meetings.
There is an enormous bond of sympathy between the school, the children, the teachers and the parents; between the school and the whole community. In fact, it is in total a community. That, of course, is the way that it has been planned and that is the way that it is working so successfully. These expressions that we hear are just a further demonstration of how effective our schools are.
Not long ago I was in a position in a school and it was one of the great pleasures of my day to witness the children come in to that school from 8 o'clock onwards. They would troop into the classrooms eager and smiling. They enjoyed their school. Almost universally they liked their school. That is a contrast with the schools that many of the older generation may remember. I was given thought to make this speech when I saw on television a week ago an eight-year-old child quite brightly talking about the school closures
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