Page 4881 - Week 16 - Thursday, 29 November 1990
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I did, however, want to raise in the adjournment debate tonight, as Mr Moore indicated, the fact that the schools debate is far from over. The school communities are battling on, and the school communities that are seeking to use the legal process to vindicate their claims - I think the Attorney is leaving - are, in fact, still waiting for an answer from the Attorney-General.
The Attorney-General has fled and Mr Stefaniak appears to be in flight. This is an extraordinary experience, Mr Speaker. I often look across at the Government benches and see no ideas and vacant faces. Here we are looking at the Government benches and seeing no people and vacant seats. What an extraordinary position to relish.
School Closures
MR BERRY (5.40): The reverberation from the empty chairs opposite is a little off-putting, and to have nobody to launch into about some serious matters which are often dealt with in adjournment debates is also a little off-putting. It has been brought to my attention that the level of debate has been improved because we have not one member of the Government in the chairs opposite. It is a very interesting absence.
What I want to put on the record is that I have just learnt today that the Government is preparing to move the archives from the South Curtin Primary School. They will be put into some car-parking places at the Belconnen Health Centre. That seems fairly innocuous on the surface, but what it means is that there is going to be some confrontation with the community when people begin to transfer those archives to the Belconnen Health Centre. The Government is intent on confrontation with the community over the school closures issue. It is rushing out like a bull at a gate. It intends to take the community on. It would be interesting to hear some interjections from Mr Humphries or Mr Kaine or any of the other people opposite, if any of them were here. Feel free to interject at any time, Mr Speaker, given your association with the Liberal Party.
This is a very serious matter because the communities of schools in the ACT have declared that they want to fight on and they will fight on. The 150 people at Cook Primary School last night were very angry and disturbed about the Government's approach, and the indications are very clear that they will fight on with the assistance of the biggest community organisation in the ACT, the trade union movement. That will mean, if the Government's attitude is any indication, that there are all the parts of a formula for a confrontation which will sour the community of the ACT.
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