Page 3125 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 August 2005
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To put the decision in context, the government had to make some fundamental decisions before undertaking consultation in order to talk about the proposal and what we were prepared to do. It would have been extremely difficult for the minister to commence a consultation process in relation to a project of this order without the authority of cabinet in relation to whether or not the cabinet or the government would support expenditure of the order of $43 million.
This is a major piece of capital works; it is an incredibly significant project in terms of size. This is the third-largest capital budget investment the government proposes in the ACT. I think the only other larger project in the ACT at this time is the prison and the second-largest project would be Gungahlin Drive. That is the significance and order of the investment the ACT government proposes to make. It simply would not have been possible for the minister to engage in meaningful consultation or conversation with the people of Belconnen without a detailed understanding of the authority she had from government or cabinet in relation to those negotiations. With that authority she can now, as she has, put the proposal on the table—that the government is prepared to make this major investment in education in Belconnen for the benefit of the current generation of students and indeed for the benefit of all students who wish to attend this school in the next number of generations.
This is the government recommitting to public education; it is the government acknowledging that a fundamental role of government, and one of the most important roles government fulfils, is to ensure equality of access to quality education for all of the children in our community or society. The government takes this challenge seriously. It is at the top of the list of issues that we are committed to delivering on. As a government we will not shirk our responsibility to ensure that every child in Canberra, every child within our community, has equality of access to quality education. That cannot be said without fear of contradiction in relation to the delivery of education at this moment in west Belconnen and it simply cannot be said about Ginninderra district high school or about our capacity to meet the commitment to our promise that every child will have equality of access to high quality education.
The minister has spoken in detail this morning about the commitment she has made to consult. The challenge that has been thrown down by the opposition, by the Greens, this morning is that we have not committed to consultation and that we are not being open. There could be no more open and fulsome process of consultation than that which has commenced and is now being pursued by the minister and will continue. As the minister said, every question that has been asked of her or her department by the residents of Belconnen will be answered in full. All details around the nature of the new school—what the upgrade will mean and what the new design will entail—will be answered as first order questions, as will every other question that has yet to be asked. Every question that has been posed to the government through all of the mechanisms that have been made available will be responded to fully, and every member of the community will be provided with answers to those questions.
Let us look at the nature of the new school and what will be provided at the newly built school to replace Ginninderra district high school. The school will provide a preschool to year 10 facility on a single campus rather than on several separate sites, allowing facilities such as the library, canteen, administration areas, facilities and outdoor spaces
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