Page 2822 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 14 August 1990
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heard from my sources - and it should be a great embarrassment for you - that on the south side, in Weston Creek, the recommendation was actually to close Chapman school. Of course, you could not see your way clear to sending those Chapman students to Rivett - oh, that would be awful - so instead you have turned around and closed Rivett. But of course that will never see the light of day because you probably stamped those documents with "Cabinet-in-Confidence" or something along those lines.
Mr Jensen: That is a slight on the Rivett school, Mr Moore - a disgraceful slight on the Rivett school.
MR MOORE: Yes, exactly. I am glad Mr Jensen interjected, "That is a slight on the Rivett school". I am glad you actually got the point that your Government has put that sort of slight on to that sort of school, because that is the attitude you present. If you look right across Canberra at the socioeconomic groupings and the schools you have closed it tells a story about your set of values, about the way you treat education and the way you treat people throughout Canberra who are concerned about the retention of their schools and their neighbourhood school system.
The other factor that is most important here is the $250,000 just spent on Higgins school. The same story is told again and again throughout Canberra. Hundreds of thousands of dollars has just been spent on upgrading Cook school and making sure that it is in good condition - just ready for you people to bulldoze it. That is good economic management.
Mr Berry: They were painting it last Saturday.
MR MOORE: Exactly. They were painting it last Saturday, Mr Berry interjects. Well, I think it is time you people realise that if you have got any guts at all some of you will cross the floor tomorrow.
School Closures
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (9.41): I am happy to support the comments made by Mr Berry and Mr Moore in relation to the debate on the closure of schools. Government members opposite have to fairly and squarely face the fact that day after day, week after week we have sought in this chamber some evidence of rationality behind the Government's decisions, some evidence that there is a financial case for the drastic action that it is taking, some evidence that it has considered the educational and sociological impact of the decisions that it has taken. We have sought that in vain, week after week, and in fact we have had the extraordinary statement by Mr Humphries quite recently that he does know the figures on school closures but he is not going to tell us - and nor is he going to
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