Page 2915 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 20 September 2006
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Our planning policies are working. For years we have been trying to encourage people to move closer to their places of work. People are moving into places like Lyons, Chifley and Giralang, which are on good transport routes, with their families. In the future there will be increased demand for primary school places in those suburbs, but this government has not done the analysis. They have had a knee-jerk reaction. As a result of that, we will see bad policy decisions with money spent badly—good money after bad—because the government has not done the work.
There should be a long-term analysis of the future use of surplus school land and buildings. Most importantly, detailed transition arrangements need to be prepared, and published to the families concerned, for each student affected by a closure or an amalgamation. The minister says, “Do not worry; we are doing it.”
Mr Barr: We are.
MRS DUNNE: When you talk to the parents, they are not getting the message. I talk to parents, Mr Barr. You talk to bureaucrats. Mr Speaker, you talk to parents and I talk to parents. On the weekend when I was talking to parents, they were saying, “We do not know what is going to happen to our children next year.”
Parents of children in schools slated for closure at the end of this year have no idea where their children are going to go. In particular, they have no idea where their children with special needs are going to go. That is the most important thing. The other thing our amendments propose is that each decision to close or amalgamate a government school by the minister would be a disallowable instrument to ensure that the decisions made by this minister are available in this place for scrutiny.
Mr Stanhope: What a stunt!
MRS DUNNE: The Chief Minister says it is a stunt. It is only a stunt because he is afraid to put on the table the reasons why his government will choose to close schools. He is afraid to put them on the table, say, “I want to close Cook primary school and preschool because—” and state the reasons. The reasons are not there. You know that, Mr Speaker. You have been out to the community, unlike the Chief Minister who, as far as I can tell, has not visited one of these schools. He has not visited a school in his electorate. He has not gone to any of the consultation meetings. He has not been there. He has been absent.
His briefing and his understanding of the impact this has on people across the territory is deficient because he is not out there talking to them. I gather that, from time to time, people come up to him during his Saturday morning coffees to tell their stories, and I commend them for that. They have to go in pursuit of the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister is not seeking them out.
In summary, the Liberal opposition is supporting Dr Foskey’s moratorium bill, but we feel that we can make it stronger—and as a community we must make it stronger for the protection of the community. The aim is to strengthen the school closure moratorium bill so it provides longer-term relief to Canberra families. We think that a moratorium by
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