Page 3380 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 20 September 2005
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ACT in this way, talking down our schools, talking down our children, talking down our teachers and talking down our community? What is it that the opposition hopes to gain? Some snivelling political advantage, I presume, a refusal to acknowledge that some things are done well, some things are done right, to the point where we lead the world. It is not enough that we lead the nation. We lead the world and it is still not good enough.
We have excellent quality education in the ACT. We all know that. We should be proud of it. We should be proud of that across the board. This should be a matter of bipartisan pride, the pride of a community in the quality of its education. Our children are our number one resource. We lead the nation. We lead it by far and we can match it across the world.
It goes, too, to the quality of our teachers. In the last year, five teachers, all from ACT government schools, were successful in winning national excellence in teaching awards. The recognition of these five teachers from our government schools displays the quality of education that our schools provide. These five teachers, who are doing wonderfully well, remarkably well, do not deserve the scornful and sneering comments of the opposition spokesperson on education.
Not only do we have award winning students and award winning teachers, but also we have award-winning schools. The Amaroo school sets a new standard for school design in the ACT, a standard that will only be bettered by the new school at Ginninderra. The Amaroo school sets the standard. At Ginninderra we will exceed that standard. The Amaroo school achieved the award for best health and safety design solution in the ACT WorkCover 2004 safety awards; the building environment and energy efficiency 2004 National Master Builders Award; the ACT Chapter of Royal Australian Institute of Architects highly commended award in environmental design and a highly commended rating in the leadership award for injury prevention and management category of the Commonwealth Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission’s 2005 safety awards.
The ACT government saw the building of the Amaroo school as an opportunity to move away from what was then considered the traditional school model to something that would lead the way in the future. That involved a recognition that the teaching and learning environments would have a considerable impact on the wellbeing of staff, students and visitors. The government is, as I said, now determined to improve on that in the construction of a state of the art facility at Ginninderra district high school to maintain our commitment to public education and the revitalisation of education and educational infrastructure in the ACT.
I think it is truly ironic, perhaps ridiculous, that this motion that we are debating today comes from an opposition that went to the last election with a policy to close government schools all over Canberra. That was the Liberals’ policy before the last election, to close schools, with no replacement infrastructure, no reinvestment, no forward planning, no consideration for the children, young people or the future of the ACT, just economic rationalist arguments about efficiency in school closures. Mrs Dunne has already said she agrees that Ginninderra district high school should close, but of course she offers no replacement. It is clear that the Liberal Party would gladly close schools all over Canberra with no thought for further investment in the community.
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