Page 1007 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 1991
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school. His inability to plan, his inability to resolve the issues, led to that additional cost that I referred to; it was not due to any other factor.
One of the things that have not been given to us by the Government today is the cost of those very high rentals as a result of some of these changes around the Weston Creek area. I presume that they are known. Mr Collaery talks about other matters, so I assume that he knows what they are. I wonder why he is not saying it.
Mr Speaker, I have received a note from your deputy who tells me that Mr Stefaniak would like an opportunity to speak. In view of that remarkable indication - it is a welcome change from the silence that has come from the Government back bench over the whole issue of school and hospital closures - I am prepared to curtail my time to allow him to say some words. I welcome it.
MR STEFANIAK (4.19): Mr Speaker, I am happy to talk on this subject because I am the only member of the Assembly who lives there. I am concerned that the Leader of the Opposition, who is not here now, might be talking up a situation that does not really exist.
During the course of this Assembly I have received a large number of complaints and comments from people in Weston Creek. I get them quite frequently; I get them every time I go to the shopping centre. I get people coming round to my house. At one stage I rented a room out there in the community centre. I have spoken to a lot of people about a lot of things. The schools issue was certainly a very big one, and I am glad that I made quite a positive contribution in relation to a number of problems that arose. I spoke with my friend Mr Humphries and I am very happy that Rivett Primary School remained open.
Mr Connolly: Positive contribution? But they shut the schools in the area.
MR STEFANIAK: There were some continuing problems, Mr Connolly. You may well laugh about that, but there were some continuing problems there as a result of that school remaining open. I am pleased to say that every time I saw the Minister for Education, who had responsibility for that school, he was always prepared to listen; to listen to the community groups who saw him and, indeed, to act on some of the problems when he realised that there were problems there. I found him most responsive to those problems.
I have listened with interest to the debate today because, of the problems people in Weston Creek have come to me about, I have not had very much concern expressed to me since we took government in relation to either the community centre or, more specifically, the health centre. I can recall some representations last year when I took Mr Humphries around the health centre and we tried to sort out a problem for one particular group there, but in relation
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