Page 821 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 2 April 2008
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have talked about many times with 23 schools being closed. But the final slap that is happening at the moment is at Lyons. Of course, that will apply to other schools around the territory. That is the final slap on the way out. Before the election the government said, “We are not going to close any schools.” After the election they said, “We will be closing 39 schools.” They then decided to close 23.
On the way out they are going to make it as disruptive as possible, it would seem, for some of these school communities. Strong consideration was given by this government to Lyons children completing the school year in the school hall or being moved to Yarralumla early. The minister will say, “That is not our plan now.” We know that the education department have said that that was their plan. The Canberra Times was told that that was part of their plan. If it is no longer the policy, that is a good thing, but that policy shift has only occurred because there was an ugly story for the government in the Canberra Times yesterday. We have seen the way that they have treated some of these communities. It is a concern and it will no doubt leave a bad taste in the mouths of many of these parents. In some sectors it will exacerbate the negative impression of this government’s management of the public education system.
In many ways the 2020 documentation was a marketing document. The words “choice-diversity-opportunity” appear across the top of the pages. It really is a lot of sloganeering. What parents have really been asking for is an explanation. We know that it was in response to the Costello report, but we have never been told what was in the Costello report and why it justified such a massive upheaval. We will not know until the government actually release that report, and we know that they will not because there is no doubt that many of the revenue assumptions that were made in that report were wrong and, if they were to release it, it would cause them further embarrassment that they went down this destructive path.
They did it in a panic. They did not think it through. They did not take it to an election as a policy. They did it after saying that there would not be any school closures. They panicked and closed 23 schools. We are seeing the end result of that in Lyons. As a result of poor planning and mismanagement we are seeing the community of Lyons, and no doubt other schools, being affected in a negative way by these ill-thought-through school closures.
Recently we had our community education forum in Calwell. It was a very useful exercise. It brought together parents, teachers, students and representatives of the Australian Education Union, the Independent Education Union, the independent schools and non-government schools. It brought together a whole raft of interested members of the community in relation to our school system.
Mr Barr: How many were there, Zed?
MR SESELJA: We have the interjection from Mr Barr. I said the numbers publicly. I think it was about 30. It was a good cross-representation. There is absolutely no spin in that. I am happy to put on the table those who were there. It was a very honest discussion, and that is rare. The Australian Education Union is not necessarily the Liberal Party’s best friend. But we did see Clive Haggar coming out and praising the forum. He could see that it was a constructive attempt to engage with the community
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