Page 1974 - Week 05 - Thursday, 3 May 2012
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Ms Burch may shrug her shoulders and laugh it off, but it is interesting that the neglect she showed this place as a backbencher has been replicated by the neglect she has shown this place as a minister, and umpteen inquiries have proven that. Her inability to answer questions for months on end shows just how obvious her errors of judgement have been. Like successive education ministers, she has failed the people of Canberra, and the government continue to do so.
By far the biggest legacy the ACT Labor Party has when it comes to education is the closure of 23 schools in 2006. This is something that, of course, the Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher, said would not happen. Yet, like with so many other things, she is trying to distance herself from the truth, just as she tries to distance herself from the Labor Party conference resolution that the growth of private education has facilitated the fragmentation of Australia’s children along ethnic, cultural and particularly religious lines. What she is saying is that every family that chooses to send their kids to non-government schools has contributed to the fragmentation of Canberra.
In 2004 on several occasions the then education minister, now Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher, assured the community that schools would not close. Prior to the 2004 election Ms Gallagher repeated her claims that schools would not close. In fact, Katy Gallagher was misleading the community in each of these instances. Just like then, how can we trust her today when she makes an announcement, especially in an election year?
Katy Gallagher confessed in this place that she had broken that promise only six weeks after the 2004 election:
Really, it started not long after the election. On 30 November, as part of my visits to schools as minister for education, I visited the Ginninderra district high school …
I will tell you when that planning started. The planning started on 30 November 2004, when I went and visited the terrible facilities at west Belconnen, at Ginninderra district high school … In years to come, the government will be thanked by the community itself; you wait and see.
Well, we have waited, and what we have seen is a great disparity between school premises in the ACT. Whilst there are some super schools that have super facilities, there are others that are left to rot because they are riddled with asbestos. Whilst there continue to be ongoing issues with bullying and behavioural issues, all the government can do is point to a few new buildings. There are no new ideas; just the same bandaid approach. There are no new values; there are no commitments to values. There is simply a neglect of the education portfolio.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the recent debacle surrounding the proposed CIT and UC merger. This project has been a colossal waste of time. We heard today the minister say it had cost $60,000. We would all be keen to see the evidence supporting that. Students, educators and the community alike are left shaking their heads. In fact, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canberra was quoted in the Canberra Times yesterday as being exasperated with the process. He said, “From the university’s point of view, I feel we have wasted a lot of time and energy.”
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