Page 1284 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 16 April 1991
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However, the Government has underestimated the determination of the community to save its schools. The schools and their communities are fighting on, and along with them the ALP is fighting on. The schools know that we will reopen them; and the Government knows that too, which is why it wants to act in the way it has.
Mr Collaery: You will reopen them, full stop?
MR WOOD: We will reopen those schools, yes. We will consult with the communities on reopening those schools. That will be a consultation, as I already understand following my discussions on how and when we will reopen those schools.
Mr Humphries: Which schools - the ones you closed?
MR WOOD: We will carry on the fight, Mr Humphries, and I will respond to your rather spurious claims about that a little later. The Liberals, of course, look on this with delight. They are very happy that schools should close. The Rally have surrendered and the No Self Government Party looks on, it seems, in confusion.
Mr Duby: It does not exist.
MR WOOD: It does not exist. It is the Independents, is it?
Mr Duby: That is right.
MR WOOD: All right. Well, they look on with added confusion. It was clear from the start that the Government's intention was to make a capital gain from the sale of the school sites. I think the first press statement I put out on this matter in about March last year, over a year ago, made the point that the school closures made sense from the Government's stance only if there was some capital gain at the end of it. There was no other benefit. The Chief Minister at other times has commented on the need to realise the assets of the ACT. Mr Kaine, when he sees schools, sees only dollars, whereas I can see education programs and learning and vital activity.
For the Liberals, the sites are good for construction. It seems that having green space is an offence. In these planning documents we see some sort of formula expressed that so many people earn so much green space. I would think that the only formula that counts is what the community wants and is prepared to support. This Government does not value the urban infrastructure of the ACT, but the community does value that infrastructure. It values Canberra. It appreciates and places the highest priority on its open spaces. Canberrans repeatedly say, over and above anything else, that they want to keep
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