Page 4315 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 7 December 1993
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Madam Speaker, the Labor Government proudly supports neighbourhood schools and their positive effects on the local community. One example is Lyons Primary School. We all know what a wonderful example that is. The evidence presented to the committee by the Lyons school clearly endorsed the Government's decision to keep Lyons school open. That was done against considerable adversity. Lyons school has proven itself to be a highly responsible and innovative primary school. I think everybody on the committee felt that when they came to talk to us. Furthermore, it offers many after-school uses and it is being managed very successfully by the school board. We accepted that the school boards are very much involved in this and really care about their schools.
Recommendation 12 of the report states that the long-term leasing of school facilities should continue to be administered on a cost recovery basis. I agree with Mr Cornwell; I honestly do believe that people do not appreciate things they get for nothing. I think that if they have to pay for them they appreciate them a lot more. This is important because community access should not be limited only to the groups that are financially well off. I understand that we have to look after groups that cannot pay. It is important that we do this. Groups that can afford to pay should be paying.
The inquiry produced much criticism of the booking procedure for using schools and I believe that this is one of the greatest factors determining access. We should be looking at that situation. Much evidence was presented regarding double bookings, inconsistency in charging practices, particularly if something was being organised by the schoolteacher, and last minute cancellations. We did get a lot of complaints about the fact that things would be organised and people would turn up at the school and find that somebody else was using the room that they had booked weeks before. This really has to be looked at. You cannot have people organising something and then finding, after they have brought 20, 30 or 40 people - however many - to the school, that they are not able to use the facilities. I think we need to look at that. The report looks at ways in which this should be done. What came out was that when it is handled by the schools it seems to be run a lot better. I firmly believe that these are positive recommendations by the committee and that they will substantially improve the booking process.
Madam Speaker, in closing I would like to thank the members of the committee for their cooperation, and the secretary, Mr Kim Bond, for using his very talented skills in making this report into a meaningful document. As I said, it was nice to come down with a report that everybody agrees with. I think it was a very interesting time. The public hearings gave us a good chance to hear what people had to say. It was not amazing, because people in Canberra do care about their schools. They do care about what happens in them. The number of people who turned up at the public hearings to give us their point of view and the number of people who sent in submissions showed just how important schools are to people in Canberra.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Sitting suspended from 4.15 to 8.00 pm
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