Page 3044 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 17 October 2007
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Ms MacDonald: It’s not your question. What is your point of order?
Mrs Dunne: Relevance.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Just stick to the subject matter of the question.
MR BARR: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am very happy to inform the Assembly that families in the Belconnen area will benefit from over $80 million of funding on public education: $35 million on upgrades in existing schools in addition to the $45 million west Belconnen P-10 school.
School communities will see a range of major improvements occurring: significant environmental upgrades to improve energy and water efficiency; landscaping and playground improvements; upgrades to science labs and art rooms; and, as I have indicated, much needed improvements to internal and external painting and floor coverings—the entire look and feel of our schools. Access for students with disabilities will be improved. Where needed, heating and cooling is going to be upgraded to ensure that staff and students have the best possible facilities in which to teach and learn.
Seventeen primary schools in the electorate of Ginninderra will receive upgrades worth more than $15 million, including Fraser primary, Charnwood-Dunlop primary, Mount Rogers school, Macgregor primary, Evatt primary, Latham primary, Southern Cross primary, Florey primary, Hawker primary, Macquarie primary, Maribyrnong primary, Kaleen primary school, Giralang primary school, Miles Franklin, Gold Creek, Aranda and Weetangera—$15 million worth of upgrades across 17 schools and, according to the shadow minister, one of the local members, throwing good money after bad.
Four high schools and three colleges will receive upgrades worth more than $20 million: Kaleen high; Belconnen high; Canberra high; as I have indicated, the Melba-Copland secondary school; Lake Ginninderra college; and Hawker college—$20 million worth of upgrades shared across those senior secondary schools.
There is no question that families in Belconnen will benefit from these upgrades and that educational environments will be improved to give students in Belconnen the best opportunities possible.
Unfortunately, as I say, the opposition does not see this improvement in public education as a priority. It says that it is throwing good money after bad. Mrs Dunne is on the record as saying that. She has repeated that assertion in this place. We will continue to remind her time after time—every time—
Mr Mulcahy: Mr Speaker, a point of order. You have already directed the minister to stay in the subject area. He is going back into his tirades again.
MR SPEAKER: It is reasonable to contextualise these things.
Mrs Dunne: It is all context and no answer, Mr Speaker.
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