Page 2564 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 23 August 2006
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In fairness to Ms Gallagher, it is clear that she had no plans to close 40 schools and preschools. The opposition obtained documents which made that perfectly clear. Shortly before she lost responsibility for the Department of Education and Training she signed off on Education 2010 in April 2006—I believe it was 13 April 2006—which was to have been an effort to consult the community about the future of education. So how have we arrived at this point where we now have a scorched-earth approach to schools?
We think that a combination of factors led to this draconian Towards 2020 plan. The Stanhope government has finally discovered that its profligate expenditure was threatening the economic future of the ACT. It also, I think very importantly, received a secret report on the functional review just prior to this year’s budget. Towards 2020 was therefore hatched shortly after the government received the functional review. Towards 2020 is half-baked and was thrown together over a very short period before the June budget this year. Is it any surprise, therefore, that the government has been copping some flak over its decision to shake up the school system? None of its positions stack up and they are not supported by the facts.
Let us take the case of Chifley. The demography of that area suggests an increase in students over the next few years, not a decline, yet a school closure has been flagged for that suburb. The community knows that Labor’s school closures policy does not add up. Indeed, the education minister seems to be making it up as he goes along.
The Towards 2020 proposal has not stood up well to scrutiny. Clive Haggar of the AEU told the estimates committee when he appeared before it:
The document itself is being treated with absolute derision by the teaching profession—the lack of data, the simplistic assumptions that are contained within and the impossibility of some of the proposals containing the students that are supposed to go to particular schools when their own closes. There is no consideration of timetable. A 6 December decision by government to close schools will mean that we have no capacity to staff schools adequately, whether they shut or they remain open for the beginning of the next school year.
Peter Malone of Unions ACT told the estimates committee:
The proposals for school amalgamation and closure are ad hoc and underfunded, which will lead to considerable community distress without strengthening the public education system.
Jane Gorrie of the P&C told the estimates committee:
There is a real concern around the quality of the data that is being tabled, anyway, as part of the 2020 proposal. With the concern around the quality of the data, then obviously everyone in the community feels totally concerned about the whole proposal and the validity of the proposal, and whether it is actually going to deliver any of the things that it promises to deliver.
The data supplied by Mr Barr does not stand up to close scrutiny, nor do the costings. The opposition, together with community groups, have repeatedly shot holes in this proposal. Even within the Labor Party many people have grave doubts about the wisdom
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