Page 2913 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 October 1992
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COOK AND LYONS PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Ministerial Statement
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning), by leave: Madam Speaker, this statement is concerned with a newspaper article in today's Canberra Times about the reopening of Cook and Lyons primary schools. It will place the matter more clearly on the record. I have little argument with the text and the figures that the Canberra Times used. The headline, however, simply does not reflect the story as it has been expressed. In considering this issue, members should be aware of the context in which these events occurred. This is not just a debate about figures. It is also a lesson on how bureaucracies work and how, occasionally, someone can become too heavily involved in a campaign. Some matters are really better left unsaid, but I did not raise the issue and I will still be restrained in what I say.
The Alliance Government fell in June 1991 because of the internal strains caused by the schools closure issue. At that time the then Secretary of the Department of Education was heavily involved in producing figures which tried to demonstrate how much money could be saved by closing schools. Members will recall that those figures were challenged effectively by a range of experts and community groups. The Alliance Government and the architect of the school closure plan, Dr Willmot, subsequently and substantially lost their case to those groups. That hurt, and the hurt was obvious. In my view, the then secretary of the department became unduly involved in the issue, particularly because his advice was not successful in winning the public debate for the Alliance Government. This background provided a difficult basis for Dr Willmot's subsequent relations with the Government.
When the Follett Government returned to power we were determined to reopen two schools which had been closed - Cook and Lyons. You will understand what I am saying about the background when I report that Dr Willmot was reluctant to accept the new Government's policy on those schools. I had to order him to open them. Bear in mind that these events that we are debating now occurred in the first fortnight of the new Follett Government and at the height of all that passion about the school closures. At the same time as this occurred, quite obviously, I sought advice about the cost of reopening those schools and received and carried a bid of $890,000 to the Chief Minister. Both as Chief Minister and as Treasurer, she disputed the bid - an entirely common occurrence, I thought, under any Treasurer, but apparently not under the present Leader of the Opposition. Upon further examination it became clear that the bid could not be sustained. For example, it included an ambit claim for a range of works not at all associated with the cost of reopening the schools and getting them back into the system.
These items, and this is for both schools, included such matters as carpet, $41,000; new boiler, $24,000; diffusers and a PA system, $16,500; new fire detection and lighting, $30,000; evacuation system, $53,000. There were other items of a lesser amount. Interestingly, and the Canberra Times figures that came from government figures prove the point, the papers also listed the essential reopening costs - quite low and justifiable - after just six months of closure. These included such matters as fixing broken windows and floor tiles. You will know that the two schools remained in good condition because there were continuous pickets
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