Page 2872 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 15 August 1990
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discussions in the joint party room that has been made clear. We on this side of the house may have very great disagreements, but we have them in terms of issues, not personalities.
When I come to look at the nature of Canberra I see a very special city. Forgive me, but I put it in the same category as the question of the casino and pornographic videos. This city has a very special role in terms of the entire nation; it has a very special role as a model city. Those who have read Hugh Stretton's book on the nature of Australian cities will recognise the very special place that this is.
So I believe that the principles of neighbourhood schools and neighbourhood communities are intimately linked. The particular two criteria that I was most keen to establish, as the committee of five looked at all the submissions, were quality and social context. I recognise all the other criteria - the demographic problem, the economic problem and the problem of falling numbers - and I am sure that Mr Wood also recognises that there has to come a point at which, if you have zero students or five or 10 or 15 or 20, obviously a school cannot continue.
But I say that I am answering this matter from the heart, not the head. I want to say that what is critical for me came about in the debate over Weetangera. Much of this debate took place after we had made a decision in the joint party room. If there is to be any change in what we do it will have to be made in the joint party room as well, because there is a majority which is a government, which has a responsibility, and that Government must govern.
Let me come to the Weetangera example. I am using it only as an example. I am not either defending or attacking or commenting on or judging the school Weetangera or the community Weetangera, but let me give you the example. Weetangera has eight, nine or 10 reasons why it should not be closed, but the one which particularly affected me and which I believe has affected others on this side of the house as well as your side of the house, Mr Wood, in relation to your motion, is the interrelationship between community, neighbourhood and school.
I have no doubt at all that, in some other agenda of logicality, schools of 100 to 150 can produce some kinds of cost savings, although I also believe that there are great costs to be incurred when institutions and activities, which are in those schools, have to be moved. There are costs to be saved and costs to be incurred. But I am trying to come to all this now in saying what I am seeing as a group of residents rallying around Canberra in at least seven - you could say eight, nine, 10 or 11 - communities. I am not talking about just kilometreage or the numbers of students or the cost of the watering of the grounds and all that; all that has certainly been looked at. What they are saying, and what I am hearing, and what
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