Page 1288 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 16 April 1991
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MR KAINE (Chief Minister) (4.18): Mr Speaker, the issues raised in this matter are indeed issues of importance to the people of the ACT, but they are not important for any of the reasons given by Mr Wood. They are important because this exercise is another example of the firm intention of the Alliance Government to look after the assets of the Territory, to be prudent about the use of its resources, to ensure that costs are reduced and that decisions are taken in the broader interests of the Territory as a whole.
The schools involved in the draft variations to the Territory Plan released for comment by the ACT Planning Authority are all currently vacant. Four of them closed at the end of 1990, and the fifth, at Lyons, closed at the end of the first term this year.
The decision to close the schools was not an easy one, but we did not shirk our responsibilities to help create a more efficient school network. No responsible government could continue to sustain the situation in which school buildings were so underutilised while at the same time the pressures on the Territory's recurrent budget were so great.
The closure of the schools is a fact. The children have established new patterns of school attendance, and school administrations have responded well to the needs of the receiving schools. To hanker for the reopening of the closed schools may have some emotional appeal, but it is not a rational response to the needs of the Territory in terms of making the best use of resources or of providing the most efficient education system.
Mr Wood: That is not what they say.
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I listened carefully to what Mr Wood had to say. I would have thought that he would do me the same courtesy. Given the situation, Mr Speaker, the consideration of new uses for the sites of the former schools is a perfectly reasonable planning activity. The ACT Planning Authority has invited public comment on proposed variations to the Territory Plan. This means that they have set in train a normal procedure that, following public consultation, will lead to the authority making recommendations to the Government on the range of uses that may be appropriate for the sites in the future.
Current land use of a community facility has not been removed, as community use of the site remains a valid planning provision. The proposed policies also permit the existing buildings to be used for offices of sporting, cultural, social or other non-profit, community-based organisations. Indeed, this is the approach adopted by the Government in relation to the use of the Pearce school building - a school closed by Labor in 1988. Other uses are also seen as appropriate to be considered as alternatives for the reuse of these sites. The main additional use is housing, especially medium density
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