Page 1775 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 6 June 2006
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No longer will there be a single, standard template for schooling. Each region will have a plan tailored to its needs.
Some existing schools may become early-childhood schools.
Some may become middle schools.
The feasibility study into the proposed Gungahlin secondary college will look at the possibility of co-locating a college and a CIT campus, creating a truly seamless vocational education facility unlike anything seen in this territory before.
The government is excited by Towards 2020: renewing our schools. I know that the families of Canberra will be excited by it too, once they see the detail and understand the opportunities. I encourage them to engage fully with the proposals and concepts that have been suggested for their particular regions.
I am confident that this historic investment, and the ‘2020 vision’ behind it, will restore confidence in our public schooling system and make it truly the system of first choice for Canberra families.
Housing
Mr Speaker, this budget involves some significant changes to the operations of Housing ACT.
As many Canberrans would be aware, the government has been actively considering options for reform of our public housing system. This process has been conducted openly and very publicly and has not been without its passion and its controversy.
Housing is about much more than a roof, four walls, a bed and a stove. It is about home. It is about community.
That makes the delivery of public housing a particular challenge, but also an opportunity for true community building.
I hope that the process the government sets in train today will see some of those challenges met, those opportunities fulfilled.
I am pleased to announce a number of initiatives that will take effect immediately, as well as some options that are being worked through.
Efficiencies of $10 million a year will be achieved in operational and management costs.
Of these savings, $18 million will be directed over the next three years towards the capital program. The budget provides an additional $12 million over the next three years in capital funding. Together, these measures will give the government $30 million over three years to reconfigure housing stock to better reflect the needs of tenants.
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