Page 573 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 14 March 2007

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will be similar to those they were able to provide when it was a school. And that is what they want. It was a community facility—a community meeting place as a school—and they want that, at least, to continue.

My motion did not speak about specific schools, as Mr Hargreaves implied it did. My motion is about a process, not its outcomes. If the process is good, we will accept the outcomes. I do not think the process is good.

I will finish there. With my motion there was an opportunity to have a good process—one that is already in place—made better. It would have increased trust in the government. As it is, there will be all those processes—everything that Mr Hargreaves outlined, with the land being passed to LDA when the decision is made and then a territory plan variation being made if that is required. It sounds to me like a political hot potato, because I would say the timing of that is going to be some time around the next election.

As far as I can see, the only justification from a political angle for selling this land is to provide the funds so that more promises can be made at the next election. Whether they will be kept is another matter. It looks as though this process will coincide with the next election. It is very likely that we will have what we wanted anyway, which is an election about the closing of schools de facto. If that is what the government wants, that is what the government has got, because that is what this minister has promised us.

Question put:

That Mrs Dunne’s amendment to Mr Hargreaves’s amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the negative.

Question put:

That Mr Hargreaves’s amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

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