Page 160 - Week 01 - Thursday, 9 April 1992
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Mr Kaine: The Minister is attempting to mislead the house by saying that it is empty space. Madam Speaker, in order to get an answer to the question, I withdraw the remark; but I would like an answer to my question.
MR CONNOLLY: My department administers vacant space. Whether it be a totally vacant school or vacant space in a working school, it is administered by the Department of Urban Services. It is the Government's policy to use vacant school space constructively in the interests of the community getting a return on what is its asset and in order to allow the school to continue. We had a long debate about this under the previous Alliance Government. If the people opposite see a school that is not being fully utilised, they dream of townhouses; they want to knock it down and redevelop the site.
This Labor Government wants to keep community schools. Where there is vacant space in a community school, in accordance with the best practices worldwide - and I think Mr Moore used to often refer us to an OECD document - we seek to put currently vacant space out to either community use or commercial use. Indeed, that is benefiting the private sector by giving them the opportunity to compete for space.
I would also point out that it is our practice to always do that openly and either allow a competitive tender bid or openly advertise. Mr Kaine seems to have some problem with that.
MR KAINE: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Since the Minister did not address any part of the question that I asked him, I will ask him a supplementary question. Does he really believe that the carrying on of commercial operations in a primary school while there are children attending that school, while there are children in the schoolyard, is reasonable? I do not think anybody else does.
MR CONNOLLY: The commercial activity will be appropriate to the space. We will let the market decide. Mr Kaine is a great believer in letting the market decide. We have an asset. We are putting notices out to see whether there is commercial interest in the asset, and we hope that it will lead to a productive use of that school space. No doubt the Liberals would prefer us to bulldoze the school and put in townhouses. We are not going to do that.
Petrol Prices
MR LAMONT: I address my question to the Attorney-General. Could the Minister inform the Assembly of the Government's actions in relation to the price of petrol in the ACT, in particular any initiatives to increase competition amongst retailers?
MR CONNOLLY: Mr Lamont's question is indeed timely, because Easter is coming up in a couple of weeks, and it was last year that we saw the price of petrol in Canberra skyrocket by something like 8c on the Wednesday before the Easter weekend and then magically drop by a similar 8c margin on the Wednesday after the long weekend. There was widespread community annoyance about that and a perception that, at the time of the year when families like to go away for a long weekend, suddenly the price goes up.
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