Page 4157 - Week 11 - Thursday, 17 Sept 2009
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the intervening process a number of other users have been identified for that site and that is going to cause a conflict. To reopen the school on the same site now would disadvantage a number of other users who have been identified. So it will be problematic. That is an issue that will need to be worked through. I recognise that but it does not mean that we should not have a primary school there for the Cook community, as there once was.
Despite Ms Burch’s comments, I do hope that the government take this report seriously and that they acknowledge that mistakes were made right from the inception, through the election process, where they should have taken it to the electorate, to the people of Canberra, through the consultation process, through the flawed evidence and through the errant, wrong decisions that were made. So I call on the government to take it seriously, to take the politics out of it.
I do not think it has been a politically motivated exercise. This has come largely from the community. If you read the bulk of the 76 submissions, you will find that there is very strong community outrage at what the government did and very strong community support for those schools to be reopened.
So the process that you need to follow, Mr Barr, now is less about telling people to get out of your way and chasing the photo opportunity but actually to go back, look at the decisions that you made, consider in detail the mistakes you made, and reopen the four schools in addition to taking on board the other recommendations that are contained in this report.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (11.18): I commend the committee for the report. It brings some sort of closure to one of the sorriest chapters in political history in the ACT. This was the sorry story of a government and a Labor Party that went to an election promising not to close schools. They promised not to close schools and, six weeks later, they turned around and started breaching that promise. Six weeks later! That is how good a Labor Party promise is—six weeks.
It was the most fundamental reform and fundamental disruption to our education system in the ACT and they did not have the courage, the guts, the honesty or the decency to take it to the people by taking it to an election. Instead they said, “We won’t close any schools.” That was what Ms Gallagher said through her spokesman. She said, “We will not be closing any schools.” And how long did it take them? Six weeks. Six weeks is how good a promise is from Katy Gallagher and the Labor Party in the ACT. And it is interesting that Ms Gallagher is not here to defend her record and her legacy on this issue.
This is a sorry and sordid tale of a Labor Party that betrayed the trust of the ACT community. When they went to the election in 2004, what did they say? They said: “We will not close any schools in the next term of government. We won’t close them in 2005, 2006, 2007 or 2008.” Six weeks later, they started the process of closing schools.
Mr Hanson: Shame!
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