Page 1956 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 June 2016
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I am somewhat confused as to why Mr Rattenbury required the last two months to get this information together. With respect to the projections for school capacity—and I know that the directorate looks two to three years ahead—I do not know why this information was not ready and able to be given to me within a couple of days after the conclusion of our motion.
I accepted Mr Rattenbury’s offer because I felt that at least it was one step in the right direction, but I note that I find it very strange that the information regarding school capacity—which, as I understand it, is normally made up to two to three years in advance—was not presented within a few days.
As I say, I have not had an opportunity to examine the report that Minister Rattenbury has presented. I look forward to looking at it in detail so that I can assess what he has spoken about here today.
With respect to the issues regarding Garran and other schools where the capacity is now at critical levels, I have not heard anything this afternoon that would make me feel comfortable that either the minister or the directorate is fully in control of the situation. I keep hearing about moving walls and other ways of addressing the issue, and also making sure that people from out of the area cannot come to the school anymore. My information from parents has been that a lot of people have moved into the area; they are already living in the area, so I cannot see how the department could keep them out of the schools that they are entitled to send their children to.
Unless I missed something in Mr Rattenbury’s report, I have not heard what is going to be done to address the Garran shortcoming in particular. Currently, the school has to utilise the teachers’ common room, the library and the school hall to be able to hold classes that need specialised attention. For example, some of the music classes need somewhere to practice. At the moment all of these are very critical issues that the school is trying to contend with, and it is having an impact on the education of the children at Garran in particular. There are other schools with similar issues.
I very much look forward to examining the report that Mr Rattenbury has given to me. I would very much like to hear from him as to why the information on school capacity projections for all of the years that I have asked for cannot be given. As I say, I did accept his offer, and I thank him for making available whatever information he has made available to us now. But I cannot understand why school projections for the next three years could not have been given to me. As I understand it, even now they are a little bit short of the target that we agreed to. I do thank him for presenting the information that he has presented.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Auditor-General’s report No 2 of 2016—government response
Paper and statement by minister
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Minister for Housing, Community Services and Social Inclusion, Minister for Multicultural and Youth Affairs, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women): For the information of members, I present the following paper:
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