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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 8 Hansard (25 October) . . Page.. 1979 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

talking about? We are talking about 250 parents and their children at this school now, for which this Government is in charge now, for which this Government has written a policy now, saying that this school will close only if the community is agreeable. Well, the community was not agreeable.

You saw no press release from me before this meeting saying, "Shock, horror; this Government is going to close this school". No. I waited to see what the community said, and the community said it loud and clear. The community said loudly and clearly last night that they do not want their community school closed. They were willing to explore those options, and they were difficult options. It is no fun running a school with less resources than any other, but they were willing to explore the options of amalgamating Years 7 and 8, amalgamating Years 9 and 10, and running a quite different school. Were they given the opportunity to explore those options? No. A letter sent on 9 October to all parents, which had to be responded to on 24 October at a public meeting, does not give time for a proper program to be established for Years 7 and 8, and 9 and 10. What sort of an option was that?

You can revert to all your history lessons and say, "Labor did this" and, "Labor did that". You are now responsible. This is your school, this is your community, this is your decision; and this school has been cheated of time. This school has been pushed into a situation where they are going to be blamed. This school has been told, "Oh, yes, well, you can do anything you like". With insufficient numbers of teachers to run a program, or even prepare a program, they are willing to run their school with insufficient teachers to cover everything; but they need time to prepare it. They need time to get it together. What are they being given? They are being given a ridiculous series of options which are non-viable. They are being given nonsense about, "It is all politicised and that dreadful Labor mob are doing things". They are being given no reassurance that anybody cares about the future of their students who are there at the school now. They are being given no reassurance that anybody cares about the Charnwood community.

This is the Government that carries on endlessly about small shops, about the community, about "save this", about "save that", and you are willing to allow the school to close without even meeting with the school community. The parents were there in force. It is one thing to meet 10 reasonable people in a room. It is quite another to see the full range of parents there who will come and tell you about how much the buses are going to cost them, about how fearful they are about the bullying that their kids encounter on the buses and at the interchange, about how fearful they are about the marijuana that is available at the interchange. These are the realities that the parents voiced last night. These are the realities of day-to-day life in Charnwood.

Most of all, and what was most telling, this is a school that is proud of itself. This is a school that wins awards. This is a school that enters competitions. This is a school that has an entity of its own. This is a school that has been refurbished, that has been added to by the P and C, and that has a viable and lively community. At the end of last year we were all there in force because there was election fever. Mr Stefaniak, Mr Berry, Mrs Grassby and I were there for Operation Farmhand. No other school in the ACT ran Operation Farmhand, thank you very much.

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