Page 1934 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 May 2010
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“We were shocked to learn over the Anzac weekend that the Government appears to have turned its back on Flynn again and ignored the detailed plan for a sustainable community centre that has been worked up by our community over the past four years,” according to Flynn community spokesperson, Roger Nicoll.
The community is bewildered by the Government’s announcement because we thought that we were in a consultation process over the past eight months, as part of a joint working group, to determine the future use of the Flynn Primary School.
The announcement of a large childcare centre occupying half the building and the lack of detail about plans for further use of the site is at odds with what the community understood was agreed at working groups meetings with government officials over the past eight months.
“Now the government has announced the very thing that we said wouldn’t work and wouldn’t meet the needs of the Flynn community. It seems like school closures all over again,” said Mr Nicoll.
This government has failed those families time and time again, firstly, by closing their schools in 2006, then, again, when it was indicated that there may yet be hope, and then, even after the education and standing committee inquiry into school closures and its recommendation to reopen the four schools in Flynn, Cook, Hall and Tharwa, this government failed them again.
Mr Barr hammered the final nails into the coffin of the hope of these communities, yet there was still further hope dangled out to the Flynn community over eight months of consultation. Imagine their surprise when, as I just said, on Anzac Day, of all days, came the announcement of the $4 million to be spent at Flynn on a large childcare centre—the very thing that the Flynn community told the government would not work and would not meet the needs of the Flynn community.
The Chief Minister and this government have failed to protect our schools, closing 23, and conned many communities into believing there was hope. And the cruellest cut of all to the community came yesterday when the Chief Minister stated during the budget speech breakfast, in a most tasteless joke, that it was easier to close a school than chop down a tree. This last statement just beggars belief—for the Flynn community, after all it has been through, to be facing a comment like that from our Chief Minister.
As the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Seselja, stated earlier, we have had nine years of Labor—nine years of wasted money, wasted time and wasted opportunity; nine years of waste; nine years of ACT Labor; nine years in which 23 schools have closed and dozens of GPs have closed shop; nine years in which revenues and taxes have exceeded all expectations but could still not keep pace with the expenditure.
Take also the $1.6 million committed to support students with disabilities over four years in ACT public schools. At those levels, each year of funding each school will receive approximately $4,650. Equally pertinent, if the government is committed to providing assistance to students with disabilities, why is this funding only available to students at ACT public schools? The Treasurer said in the budget speech:
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