Page 371 - Week 01 - Thursday, 16 February 2012
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environmental and health concerns related to toxins and reduce the use of these risks by ensuring that furniture, fittings and building materials are toxin-free or pose the least possible risk.
This, of course, extends to the types of cleaning products, for instance, that we use in schools. Chemicals in cleaning products can have adverse health impacts on some children and it is important that the use of chemicals in schools continues to be scrutinised and progress made to use toxin-free or low-toxin chemical products or, as I said, chemical-free products.
When the government is called on to begin maintenance work, we need to consider engineering solutions that will stand us in good stead for many years and offer flexible options for the changing student populations. We need to consider the potential impacts on the local environment of building works, be they extensions to existing schools or assessing the need for new ones.
We also need to consider the changing nature of teaching technologies and learning methods. Schools are now places of many innovative approaches to education and we need to build in the flexibility to adapt to this and to reduce the need for sometimes costly retrofitting.
We need to carefully plan the future of our investments and we need that planning to be based on sound economic advice, solid demographic data and sincere community input. The ACT Greens believe in a transparent approach to decision making that allows for genuine discussions and debate and for those decisions to be accountable to the people of the territory.
Planning for such a vital concern as education and schools cannot be done without being open to scrutiny, and it should not revolve around election cycles and political concerns. In short, Madam Assistant Speaker, we need to apply a triple bottom line approach. This is something, of course, that the Greens have been pushing for for many years. This approach, this thinking, provides an economic, social and environmental cost-benefit analysis of government policies and programs, including expenditure.
With so many public schools and an increasing population, we need to have a clear and strategic approach to school infrastructure in the territory. We cannot have a reactive system that only makes investments when an issue makes it into the Canberra Times or when parents and community groups make complaints and raise health and safety concerns. Timely investments, by definition, if they are to be considered quality investments, should be made when they are needed, not before, and certainly not after.
I return to my earlier point that high quality education and high quality learning environments are not just about bricks and mortar. It can sometimes be hard to define exactly what makes a great school. It is not all about dollars spent or brand new classrooms. It is about the culture within the school, the dedication of teachers and other staff, and the active engagement of children and young people’s minds.
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