Page 1246 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 30 May 2007
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done in consultation with the National Memorials Committee, under whose auspices it was put up. It would have been a courtesy to anybody, but especially to the National Memorials Committee, which was not consulted on the removal of this plaque.
If they were just taking away the plaque for safekeeping, why would they want to infill the plinth on which it stands and obliterate the name “Flynn” from the plinth? Surely that is not a matter of restoration. If it is really about preserving brass plaques so that they are not vandalised, why do we not take down all the brass plaques—like the one at the Florey shops that commemorates the 100th birthday of Howard Florey—in case somebody walks past and vandalises them one night?
This is an act of complete neglect and complete disregard for the people of Flynn by this Stanhope government.
Mr Corbell: The Florey shops are not closed, Mrs Dunne. I do not know if you noticed, but the school is closed now.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Corbell!
MRS DUNNE: Mr Speaker, you can see how sensitive they are, because Mr Corbell—
Mr Corbell: No, it is just such a stupid argument.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Corbell! Cease interjecting.
MRS DUNNE: —seeks to interject to talk me down, as he wants to do on any occasion. I want to know, and the people of Flynn want to know, where the plaque is and why the minister for education claims to have the plaque when the responsibility for the building rests not with the department of education but with the property group in territory and municipal services. I and my constituents want to at least see it so that we can be assured that it still exists and that somebody has not lost it in the first instance.
We also want to see that plaque restored immediately. There was no consultation on the removal of the plaque. It shows complete lack of respect for the person who is commemorated there—a complete lack of respect for the memory of and testament to the Royal Flying Doctor Service and a complete lack of respect for my constituents in Flynn, who are having their suburb name obliterated so that we can wipe out the Stanhope government’s history of closing their school, it would seem.
I turn to another matter relating to Flynn parents. Mr Pratt asked a question in relation to transitional payments today. There were Flynn parents who sent their children to the Charnwood-Dunlop school this year after Flynn closed down who could not obtain the form to apply for transitional payments from the school—the school that they were going to. The Charnwood-Dunlop school could not provide that form. It was up to other parents in the Flynn parent group to pass on the form to parents who had moved their children to the Charnwood-Dunlop school. It took literally months for some of those parents to receive their $750. That issue was raised only after all parents had received it. At the request of parents it was not raised beforehand because
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