Page 365 - Week 01 - Thursday, 16 February 2012
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As part of the towards 2020 school renewal initiative we have witnessed an investment in Brindabella of over $58 million in the development of the Namadgi P-10 school. Let us not forget that those opposite are on the record as voting time and again against this initiative, a vote that had only one possible outcome—to rob our children and the 436 current students of opportunity. It was, in fact, an attempt to steal our kids’ future.
The vision that delivered such informed design and standards in the form of such terrific facilities is a model for contemporary education not just here in the ACT but nationally and internationally. As a member for Brindabella I am proud of this achievement. Every day I drive past it and look at it and say, “How good is this?” Some of the old schools were tired and weary and I imagine not all that welcoming. If you have a look at Namadgi P-10 school now, you will see it is a piece of state-of-the art architecture and it is welcoming and it is exciting and it is vibrant and it is there because the Labor government put it there.
Safety, of course, is the paramount issue, and I remind those opposite that, in voting against the 2011-12 budget, they were voting against the new $6 million footbridge over Drakeford Drive. This footbridge, the construction of which is well underway, will enable the safe and smooth movement of students across Drakeford Drive, thereby improving the safety of our students. And how good is that? How can anybody vote against a safety initiative for children? How can you lie in bed and sleep when you have voted against protecting kids? I just cannot understand that. Maybe I am a bit naive, but I cannot understand that one.
The record of this government speaks for itself. It is tangible, it is visionary and has as its focus the needs now and into the future of our greatest resource—our kids. We only have to look around our other electorates, but I will not touch on the detail of these. I am sure my colleague, the minister, Dr Bourke, will go into a bit of detail. One of my daughters went to Ginninderra high school. I have to say, I did not like it when she enrolled in it. My daughter is over 40 now. It was Stalinistic, hard concrete, it looked like it had the Berlin Wall around it, and it had a product which matched the coldness it had. Some of the students there went on to bigger and better things in spite of it and some of them had their opportunities cut short because it was a miserable place to go to. How can you ask teachers to go to work and optimistically help the kids out when you are making them to work in such a place as that? It is not on.
This government has had foresight and courage. Let us face it, it took a heck of a lot of courage to do what this government did in 2006. That was a start. It enabled us to have an education inside the school gate and a chance to remedy the things that had been left to be neglected over years of previous conservative rule in this town. Places were run down. The Mt Neighbour school was an asbestos-ridden rat hole. It needed to go, and it went. Where did the kids go? They went to one of the most vibrant schools in the southern hemisphere—the Kambah Namadgi P-10 school.
We look at the budget and we see the two biggest spending items are health and education. Those big items are an investment in the future. We are looking after the here and now as far their health is concerned, but education is all about looking after
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