Page 3114 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 August 2005
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We know from a spokesperson for Minister Gallagher that the discussion of the focus groups only partly concerned the closure of Ginninderra district high school. Most of the information and opinions they provided would be used for the new departmental strategic plan—yet another Stanhope strategic plan. I wonder, and other members of the community wonder, whether that was the same person who in August last year categorically ruled out Labor closing any schools during the second term of the Stanhope ALP government.
In any case, if what he or she said is true it is evident that the government had no intention of consulting parents, students, teachers or the community of Ginninderra district high school before it chose to demolish their school and fragment their community. Let us be clear about how highhanded the government has been about all this. There was no mention of the proposed closure in the election campaign and there was no mention of it in the May budget.
Parents, students and teachers of Ginninderra district high school were not involved in the secret ad hoc focus group discussions that were held before the decision was announced. The only consultation that is taking place is after the event. It is designed only to canvass ways in which the community might respond to government diktats—an issue that needs to be emphasised. The consultation that is currently being undertaken is designed to canvass ways in which the community might respond to government diktats.
What is involved in this so-called consultation? Suggestion boxes have been placed in Belconnen schools. We can email our views and there are letterboxes—which are probably dead letterboxes—so that individuals might write down their views and they can be carefully orchestrated in forums that are held for the minister’s benefit. The only time the minister was game to meet Ginninderra district high school students and the community was after the announcement. I think she was totally thrown by the reaction she received at that meeting from parents, students, teachers and the wider community.
Some credit should be given to the minister, as the Chief Minister did not have the decency to attend that meeting even though it was located in his electorate. The Chief Minister is not willing or able to debate this issue with me at a public meeting although he has been asked to do so. This entire government bustle about consultation is simply posturing; it is a charade. No matter how many sham meetings we arrange, no matter how many Katy boxes are foisted on Belconnen schools, there is no democratic accountability in the process.
It is devised purely and simply to meet the formal requirements of the Education Act. In other words, it is designed to ignore completely the spirit of the Education Act. The government has already made up its mind. Any actions on the part of Ginninderra district high school will not change that. As I said earlier, the government’s actions will not only affect the Ginninderra district high school community; the proposal for a mega school will force the closure of Melba high school—by the minister’s own admission that will happen—Holt and Higgins primary schools and preschools.
In addition, it is quite likely that pressure will be placed on Charnwood, Latham and Macgregor primary schools. This issue is all about the large school syndrome. Obviously the government thinks size matters, but we have to ask: Why? What is the reason behind
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