Page 4099 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 13 December 2006
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decisions. That is a way of actually taking people with you. Yes, there will always be some disappointed people, but that would have been a much fairer way. What would you have lost if you had done that? You might have lost six months or a year, but at least you would not have caused the absolute disruption and angst you have caused to the school communities.
During the six months, the school communities, the P&Cs and the save our schools groups constantly showed up the government data as inaccurate. The proposal was cobbled together. Despite the fact that this is an improvement on the initial panic version back on 6 June, there are obviously still some huge problems with it. On 13 April there was no indication that anything like this would happen. I do not think the government itself had any real idea of what it was going to do. It is all to do with the functional review; it is all to do with the report by Mr Costello, which we will probably never see—we will probably see that when the cabinet papers come out after about 10 years—and which led to the panic decision of 6 June.
I think both Dr Foskey and Mrs Dunne have made some excellent points. In the short time available to me I will not go into those where I can possibly avoid doing so, but it is worth while putting some comments on the record. Dr Foskey has gone through it rather slowly. I will do it quickly and then highlight a few problems with what has happened here.
In Belconnen at the end of this year McKellar preschool and Flynn primary will close. At the end of 2007, Cook primary, Cook preschool and Page primary will close. Hall primary school will close at the end of this year, 2006, but not, it seems, the preschool. Melba and Copland will be a twin 7 to 12, basically with current arrangements operating on campus. Of course we already know about Higgins and Holt. There was an announcement last year in relation to the superschool.
There will be no closures in north Canberra. Obviously, Dickson College will be very relieved, as will Campbell, being a 7 to 10 school. In South Canberra only the Causeway preschool will close. Weston Creek loses Rivett preschool and primary school and Weston Creek primary school at the end of this year. Melrose primary school will close at the end of this year. In Tuggeranong we have Mount Neighbour primary school, and there is Tharwa primary school. Macarthur preschool will close in 2007, along with Village Creek primary school. Kambah high school will close in 2007, but there will be a new superschool in 2011. Village Creek preschool will close by the end of 2010.
We wonder what criteria were used. We might find out about that. Yes, there will be some relieved schools. One wonders whether there was any logic to it, whether it was those who yelled the loudest or what the reason was. Clearly this is a pretty sad day for education. As Mrs Dunne pointed out, you do not save much money through school closures. The minister has indicated a huge injection of additional funds now, with his Kambah superschool of $54 million.
Some of the schools that have been reprieved are the larger ones, which obviously cost more to run. You may have saved some more money there if that was indeed your primary aim. At the end of the day the anticipated savings for the government are minuscule. Is it worth the dislocation? Is it worth the educational problems this
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