Page 2510 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 23 August 2006
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themselves, having voted this way at a forum and now in the Assembly, because our factions do not approve, we are going to vote the other way? It is deplorable. Let us take a hard look at it. I appeal to you now: do not go with the bigger decision of closure like we are going to go ahead with it. Let us start all over again. Let us make sure that those people with a disability know exactly what your plan is, minister.
MR SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (10.50): I thought that I would have to fight with the backbenchers of the Labor Party for the opportunity to speak, because, as we all know, they have become very important people. An awful lot of people in their electorates are looking to them to do what they elected them for—to represent them. So I expect after I have finished speaking they will be vying to speak. It is quite cowardly to sit there in silence. I know it is safer, but I am waiting to hear them speak.
We are talking about this issue in the Assembly, a place of politics. Yet this issue is going to affect the lives of so many children and families. Mrs Burke spoke from the heart. She said so many things that parents have said to me. Parents of children with a disability, with autism, are particularly affected by this. It is really awful to hear members on the other side laugh. They may not have been laughing at them but they were laughing and Mrs Burke was speaking from her heart. How can people have faith in consultation when members do not even listen to other members in this house? How can people be sure they will listen to them?
My fear is that backbenchers may have already been silenced by being told—by the strongest voices, perhaps—that key schools they are worried about in their electorates are not going to be closed. Politics works like this. That is my fear and if that is the case, it makes this consultation a sham and we need to go back for more. Of course, people are talking to me, but I am only one person. I cannot save their schools. I am doing my very best. I wish I had the balance of power so we could have some proper negotiation on this issue. Constituents, of course, talk to each other when things matter to them, so they know what politicians are saying. I was sent an email that Karin MacDonald’s office sent. It says:
Karin is under the opinion that it would have been easier for schools proposed with closure and the surrounding communities if the consultation period had have run from later this year to early next year.
Is that not what my bill and this motion say? Then it says:
That said, Karin will not be supporting Dr Foskey’s Bill to delay school closures. She will however continue to work closely with the communities affected by proposed school closures and fight for schools and preschools in her electorate that should remain open.
Which are the schools that should remain open? On what criteria can Mrs MacDonald decide which schools should remain open? We know that we do not have the full information before us but possibly backbenchers have a way of getting information that others do not. Let us go back to the education 2010 proposal. It was more realistic to have a plan for 2010. Again, the minister is not listening, and this is a minister who consults and hears.
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