Page 3730 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 18 September 2018
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I understand that the presence of asbestos at Mother Teresa school came to light due to the conscientiousness of the principal, who was proactive in asking for tests to be carried out there. But what about other schools? If no investigations are underway or have been undertaken, why not?
I commend the principal of Harrison School and the principal of Mother Teresa, who are no doubt working extremely hard to ensure their school communities are safe, kept updated and reassured. This is, of course, in stark contrast to the minister’s handling of this issue, which leaves a lot to be desired.
The minister went on to downplay the seriousness of this issue by saying that the risk to health is low. I think every parent will agree that the presence of any asbestos at a school is a serious issue, full stop. If the minister cannot even see that, then she has no business being the Minister for Education.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women) (5.08), in reply: This gives me the chance to respond to some of the comments that Ms Lee has made on this issue implying that I had somehow sneakily kept information hidden from the community when it has been absolutely publicly available.
I have been working very closely with the Education Directorate, with WorkSafe, with the WorkSafe commissioner, with the Education Directorate, with the school community, with the school P&C, with the school principal and with the parents to ensure that this matter is dealt with calmly and in an appropriate way, and that information was provided to parents and the school community in a way that did not incite fear amongst people where fear was not necessary in responding to this issue.
I have provided to Ms Lee and Mr Wall on other occasions information when a situation has been serious enough to provide that information. She was not shadow minister for education at the time, but I have history and form in providing information where the issue is serious enough for me to do that, and I will continue to do that.
I was asked to provide information to the Liberal Party when they all decided that they would go out and do their big press conference to try to scare the community on an investigation that was occurring and continued to occur while they were out there trying to score political points. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Coe, was there. Shadow minister for education Ms Lee was there. Shadow minister for business and employment Mr Wall and shadow minister for planning Mr Parton—they were all there, recklessly seeking to stir up panic among the community about the non-friable asbestos contamination at Harrison School. They improperly used information about non-friable asbestos contamination at Harrison School and they failed to act with integrity and in the public interest.
The opposition, the four people I have identified, stood up in front of the Assembly after an email arrived at my office three minutes before they all got out there and said,
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