Page 2775 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 17 September 2014
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Mr Doszpot’s motion also calls into question the ACT government’s and the directorate’s ability to plan. We plan routinely and for good purpose, because it is important to know where our schools’ demands are and to recognise the need to respond to changing community demographics. In the report that I think Mr Doszpot was referring to—it was I think the source of information for the Canberra Times article—very early in the piece it clearly sets out, in table 4, the projections network by network right through to 2017, when there is a total student expectation number that is, to my count, 11-odd thousand short of the total capacity across those networks.
We do change school environments. We do put classrooms in when there is a demand. We have done that with Duffy. It was the right thing to do. We are investing $47 million in a school for Coombs. But student pressures were being felt. So it is about having a smart and responsive directorate. As I said over 10 years $807 million has been spent or budgeted. If we include the BER this will take it to over $950 million. That, in anybody’s book, is a good investment in our school community. It addresses school upgrades and new schools, and makes sure that contemporary learning spaces are available for each and every student.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (10.32): Mr Doszpot’s motion today is commendable in seeking to ensure that education and school infrastructure are a government priority, but I would suggest that in many ways it is fair to say that they already are, and will continue to remain so. As members heard yesterday, education is a top priority for both the parties in cabinet—the Greens and the ALP—and again this is against a backdrop of federal government policy and funding uncertainty. We are certainly operating in a space where it is unclear what the policy directions are in education from a federal level and where the money will be coming from.
This priority for the Greens is because we believe that education is about ensuring that we have a healthy, smart and socially inclusive community where every child is valued and is given the skills to succeed in life, and so much of that will come through having a strong and well-resourced education system. This obviously includes the built environment where learning takes place, and I recognise that we do have some older schools in Canberra that do require maintenance and upgrades as they age. I think this is an issue that can be cleverly responded to, however, and that includes developing a proactive approach to maintenance so that some of the issues that have been discussed here today do not arise.
I have no doubt about Mr Doszpot’s commitment to his shadow portfolio and I am certainly impressed by his efforts to visit as many schools as he has over the past few years, no doubt having a very good knowledge of the physical environment of many of the schools. I also note Mr Doszpot’s frustrations and that he believes that the increased planned capital upgrades to local schools are not happening quickly enough.
That said, I also have some sympathy for the position of Minister Burch, and I have listened to her comments very carefully this morning. Managing the ongoing, reactive and proactive needs of the 86 public schools, including preschool sites, is a complex task and one that is subject to change in order of priority each year, if not each month, as circumstances change and new matters arise that require addressing that perhaps
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