Page 2939 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 20 September 2006
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with increased numbers speaking out, because they are realising that the quality that they value in their school is going to be compromised.
Look at Kaleen primary school, for instance, which is concerned that if an increasing number of Giralang kids go there, they can no longer have their gifted and talented program which draws in kids from a wider area because of the responsibility to take in area enrolments first. I do not think these things have been considered. I am raising them here and I do not think I should need to. I think we should have all this on the table.
We need to consider the ecological impacts of changes. Will more car use be required? Yes, it will. But what of the people who do not have cars and what about our commitment to really doing something about climate change? I was not here for question time yesterday but I did read what was said about what we are doing about climate change.
Mr Hargreaves: Why were not you here? Were you in the building?
DR FOSKEY: I was at Giralang primary school. How will school closures impact on neighbourhood centres? We know that the nature of planning in Canberra, which is what makes us famous, was about the social necessity for local centres and local schools. The social impact is of key importance.
Can schools be extended to fulfil the function of lifelong learning? We have had a demographic change. We have an older society and maybe schools can be adjusted to take into account the fact that they want opportunities too. What about providing venues for the sea change centres which the government has just given $5,000 to the Nature and Society Forum to develop and which is looking to have bases in all the suburbs? Can we have bases for CIT? Can we expand the range of educational opportunities? Can we have specialties like schools with a focus on theatres, schools with a focus on dance, circus and art? These things exist in other cities and if we are talking about diversity, then let us really do it.
School communities are doing an amazing amount of work and there are a lot of ideas out there. But they should not have to do all the work with a sword of Damocles over their head. They really should be working in partnership with the government and not against the government because too often the government is so busy defending itself that it fails to recognise the pain that school communities are going through. Maybe that is, in the end, the hardest thing for people to take. All we hear is denial. When statistics are wrong, we hear, “No, no, no.” When people are hurting or need counselling, we hear, “No, no.” The government should recognise that and work with communities. A meeting where the minister says the same thing over and over again is not consultation. Consultation is about listening. It is about showing that you have heard and are taking on what you have heard.
Mr Barr: You have been to about three of my meetings, Dr Foskey. You are in no position to make any comment. You are in no position to make that statement.
DR FOSKEY: Even now, you cannot listen. Letters should be replied to in a timely way. That is something that has not been done. Finally, the social impacts of these
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