Page 3250 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 October 2006
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A consistent and reoccurring theme in our approach to education is the need to undertake genuine consultation with the community. That, indeed, was the practice in the past when we were in government. Schedule 2 lists a consultation formula, a formula that fundamentally was used, I think, in 1999 and 2000 most effectively to lead into an amalgamation, in the case of Mount Rogers, with the Spence campus closing; a process that was aborted by school communities in Duffy and Rivett back in, I think, 2000 or 2001; and a process that is supported by the school communities because it involves consultation before the event rather than consultation after an arbitrary decision has been made by government, with no consultation with the community at all.
That is the central tenet in the approach outlined in this bill. Good public policy must involve consultation with the community, and consultation before the decisions are made. That is the obvious, missing ingredient in the government’s policy to close 39 schools contained in its very dubious Towards 2020 statement—delivered as a fait accompli, delivered at the last minute and delivered against every indication given by the previous minister back on 13 April this year, I think, when she signed off on a fairly innocuous document dealing with six or seven forums on issues, none of which involved the closure of schools. We know that the Towards 2020 package emerged at a very late stage in the budget deliberations—and that is obvious from what I have just said—some time after 13 April and before 6 June, D Day, this year.
The government then had the hide to describe themselves and their budget papers in glowing terms for their courage in implementing the 39 school closures and were quick to pat themselves on the back for backstabbing the Canberra community. We note the point that the people in the community own the schools—not the government, not the people in this Assembly. They are a community asset. Mrs Dunne’s bill provides a process that will ensure the community’s interests are given priority and not just given lip service, like we have seen.
Let me make this clear. We have said this before and we will say it again. We have never said that there will be no school closures. We emphasise that rigour is needed before any vital decisions are made and that these important processes are undertaken in a correct and proper way. Above all, it must be transparent. Even the P&C indicates that they accept there may be a need for school closures. They have happened in the past. Funnily enough, until last year, when the government, for the first time, closed Hawker primary and Higgins primary to form the super school at Ginninderra, your party has consistently opposed any closures of schools or preschools.
We have in the past indicated that that sometimes is necessary. This bill, with the process in it, is a fair way of ensuring you can do that by taking the school communities with you as much as possible, rather than making the arrogant, arbitrary decision you made to close 39 schools. It has to be a transparent process. Rigour is certainly needed before vital decisions are made. Important processes have to be undertaken in the correct and proper way.
The Stanhope government said—and I remind you again—during the 2004 election that there would be no school closures. Now you have no qualms whatsoever in discarding that promise in a most spectacular way when delivering your bombshell in June on the planned closure of 39 schools.
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