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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 3 Hansard (23 March) . . Page.. 667 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Mr Warren Lee, in relation to small schools. Whilst my office and the department have been aware for some time that the AEU certainly is not opposed to things such as school amalgamations, it is probably the first time to my knowledge that the union has come out quite so publicly in relation to this matter. I think it is very healthy in terms of the debate that the Government thought actually needed to be had in relation to this issue, Mr Hird. Already we have seen very learned articles by the president of the P&C and the president of the Primary Principals Association. Now we have this from the union. I note that the president of the union, Clive Haggar, on WIN Television news on Thursday, 11 February, also said:

Some of our small schools, the staff there would certainly like the communities to address the issue of amalgamation with neighbouring schools.

So, there have been a couple of comments by the union. But this is a fairly substantive article and I intend to table it. Mr Lee writes that the debate over school sites is one which must be had and that "doing nothing is not an option". That seems to be the view of most people in this debate. I certainly hope that it is. I wonder whether that is the case with those opposite. Mr Lee seeks to refute much of what the P&C's argument against school amalgamations and closures relies on, such as the issue of how much saving can be made with fewer school sites, the effect on local shops, educational quality and access. Perhaps the best way, Mr Hird, to illustrate the AEU's views as expressed by Mr Warren Lee is simply to quote slabs of his article. On the issue of the financial benefits of amalgamations, he writes:

My hunch is that the savings can be quite considerable.

It is interesting to note that the Auditor-General, in a report which I think was tabled recently in this Assembly on repairs and maintenance in our government school system, estimated that about $270,000 could be saved through the amalgamation of two primary schools. Mr Lee writes that the issue of the negative effects on local shopping centres is, to use his words, nonsense. He says:

There are local shopping centres with large schools nearby that are facing difficulty at the same time as there are some with no school nearby that are doing okay and all variations in between.

Members are well aware of where the shops and schools are in Canberra. There is a lot of strength in that argument when one considers particular shopping centres. Mr Lee also has a go at the often used arguments on access. He says:

... there are several suburbs in the ACT which have never had a school. Is there evidence that children in these suburbs have suffered detriment? It seems they have been well served by nearby schools.

He adds:

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