Page 2508 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 7 August 1991
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that section 19 will not be a casino site. When are you going to simply say, "This is what we are going to do and this is when we are going to do it", and let people get on and plan their lives around responsible, or even irresponsible, Government decisions? People want to know what is happening, and that is the important point that needs to be made. I think it is foolish for you, first of all, not to go ahead with the amalgamation of the school from the start of the 1992 year. That is my opinion; you might have a different one. The school community want the amalgamation to go ahead, but the point is that the school community also want to know what their future entails. They need to be given that information and given it quickly.
MR MOORE (12.04): I think we should clarify a few statements. We are not talking about amalgamation; we are talking about the closure of Holder High School. What you were talking about in the initial instance when you made your decision was the closure of the Holder High School and presenting it as an amalgamation of two schools. Mr Humphries just a few minutes ago said, "We made the decision on that closure, then we consulted". That is the sort of mistake you have been making all the way along. That is exactly the problem we are dealing with. You made that mistake. It was made particularly by the most divisive Minister we have seen or are likely to see, the Minister who has had the most divisive effect on this community, Gary Humphries. That divisive Minister made the decision to go ahead and close those schools.
Mrs Nolan's first point notes that the majority of parents and citizens in the Weston Creek area support an amalgamation of the Holder campus and the Waramanga campus on one site. They did that because they could see no hope. They did that before there was a change of government. Mrs Nolan referred again and again to these meetings that occurred prior to the change of government. There has been only one meeting since that change of government, and that was on 29 July. That is the one that nobody from the Rally attended and that is why they now want to have more meetings.
Dr Kinloch: Because we were not asked.
MR MOORE: If they were not asked, that reflects more than anything on their ability as a community party and their role in allowing schools to close before they got booted out of the Alliance Government.
The reality is that at that meeting a very narrow majority voted for it. As I remember, it was 110 to 96, or something along those lines. Mrs Nolan points out that at that meeting there were a large number of people from out of the area. That is quite correct. I estimate that there were somewhere between 300 and 500 people at that meeting, but only about 200 of those people voted. I was one of the people counting the votes, as was Mr Kaine's senior private secretary, Greg Cornwell. It was quite clear to me at the
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