Page 2952 - Week 10 - Thursday, 16 August 1990
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Also, perhaps the neighbourhood system has changed a fair bit in recent times in that, on the figures we have, it seems that in some cases up to about 30 per cent of enrolments at certain schools are from out of area. That tends to put another slant on the argument often used by the Opposition of the distances some kids are going to have to travel to go to school.
Our system is very good. Mr Humphries realises that; the Government realises that, and Mr Humphries has continually stated that this excellent system will be maintained. I think we have always had a good system here. It might have been better in the past than it is now, because I note that about a third of our kids are in private schools and a lot of those schools have waiting lists. That has been the case for many years, but I do not really think I want to delve into that part of the debate.
I am probably the only member of this Assembly who went through the ACT state school system, from kindergarten right through to year 12 at Narrabundah High School. I can recall quite clearly in my years in high school that many students at Narrabundah were bussed in from Curtin, Lyons, Chifley and Hughes before those schools went up in the Woden valley. It is interesting to note that those same kids who started off in year 7 or 8 at Narrabundah, when Woden Valley High and Deakin High came on stream, remained at Narrabundah and made that quite considerable journey, often in buses, often by riding their pushbikes there. I can also recall walking, as a five-year-old, to kindergarten at Griffith. I can recall many students I went through infants and primary school with walking considerable distances to get to school.
I think it was in those years that we got on to a neighbourhood school system, and in each of the suburbs that blossomed in Canberra - in the expansion in the late 1960s and 1970s - a primary school was provided. But the Federal Labor Government in 1988 realised that that really was something that could not continue. And this Government, regrettably - because it would be desirable if we did have the money to do that - realises that that, unfortunately, is a luxury we simply cannot afford. I think Mr Humphries should be commended for the very hard, agonising and difficult decisions he has had to take - and, indeed, this Government has had to take.
No-one likes closing schools. It would be lovely if we could keep that system. We cannot, unfortunately. We are standing on our own two feet now and, unfortunately, just as in the rest of Australia - just as in those Labor States that recognise the same problem - some rationalisation has to take place, and Mr Humphries is doing all he can to ensure that that is as painless as possible and that the excellence of the education system remains.
Indeed, there have been some very successful amalgamations from 1988. Mr Wood mentioned Weston Creek. I will talk a
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