Page 2225 - Week 07 - Thursday, 6 June 1991
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The issues that we are dealing with in this no-confidence motion are really the issues that are of most concern to the people of Canberra. They are issues about planning, health, education, the leasehold system and the environment. On the planning issues, I believe that it is very important that the Chief Planner have direct responsibility to the Minister for planning. Under the Kaine Government, the Chief Planner had to go through the Office of Industry and Development in that line to the Chief Minister.
It was under that Alliance Government that the destruction of the neighbourhood schools was seen as an education issue. Certainly, it was an education issue to a certain extent, but by isolating it as an education issue on its own they failed to see the significance of what they were doing. Those neighbourhood schools are really about a planning issue - a planning issue that makes the school the centre, an integral part, and the heart of a neighbourhood in Canberra. If they had understood that, they may have understood what it is that motivates people to try to protect their school and to protect that heart.
With reference to the schools, I have prepared an amendment to the Schools Authority (Amendment) Bill, which I will read:
The Minister shall, upon commencement of this Act, direct the Authority to:
... reopen the primary schools at Cook and Lyons by the first day of third term 1991 as fully functioning primary schools ...
Had the situation today turned out differently - had we had a situation where Trevor Kaine was going to continue in a minority government - I was prepared to put that amendment. It will still stay with me, but I understand that the incoming Chief Minister has given assurances that those schools will be opened, and I will expect it to be done as quickly as possible. If it is not, then it will be the responsibility of the Assembly as a whole to look at a Bill like that and, of course, I would be prepared to put it up. But, in the initial instance, I think it appropriate to allow somebody who has given a commitment to carry that commitment out.
No matter which way the government went today, there was going to be a decision that those schools - the hearts of those neighbourhoods - be reopened, because the majority of members of this Assembly believe that to be the case. The excuse of stable government - and that is what it always was - and that alliance founded on self-interest destroyed the ability of the people of Canberra to be represented. They were represented on many occasions by a minority vote of five people - five out of 17 - because it was five out of 10 carrying motions within the joint party room, or perhaps six on occasions.
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