Page 3136 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 17 October 2006
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On the same page an analysis of research on school consolidation reports:
Once consideration was completed and two or three years had passed, the key stakeholders involved, including parents who were previously angry or concerned, believed the merger was beneficial for students.
That is from the P&C report. I encourage the P&C to include this report as part of their submission on the 2020 proposal. An informed debate on these matters is important, but blatant attempts by lobby groups to attack the credibility of the proposal by using half-truths and selective quotes does not assist school communities to respond in the consultation process and simply creates more fear in the community.
Mrs Dunne: And you did not selectively quote anything out of that scoping study?
Mr Stanhope: How shonky is this? How desperate is this mob getting now?
MR BARR: Of course, Mrs Dunne is no stranger to provoking fear in the community. Mrs Dunne has been rejected in her attempts to whip up terror in Charnwood. Her consultations with the residents of Ginninderra are not about listening to the views of her constituents; rather, they are an attempt to score cheap political points. As the parents of Charnwood primary say, Mrs Dunne is “fuelling uncertainty” and “doing more harm than good”.
Mrs Dunne: Were you at Charnwood last weekend or the weekend before?
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Barr, resume your seat. Mrs Dunne, come to order, please. Chief Minister, cease interjecting.
MR BARR: Mrs Dunne’s survey, which was distributed to residents in Ginninderra, contains a range of loaded questions. It is not designed to get information, but really is a form of push polling, a tactic not uncommon to the Liberal Party when in trouble. I encourage Mrs Dunne to go out and listen to her electorate and to the parents at Charnwood primary school when they tell her to butt out of the debate about Charnwood primary school. As the Canberra Times reported on 7 October, those parents do not want to be part of her political stunts. Perhaps Mrs Dunne should not follow blindly the writings of Mr Cobhold and the P&C, but read all the research and look at all the information contained in these reports.
For its part, the government will continue to work to improve the quality of public education in the ACT. That is our objective. There is one party in this chamber that is dedicated to improving public education in the ACT, and that is the Australian Labor Party.
Community housing
DR FOSKEY: My question is to the Minister for Housing and is in regard to community housing. The ACT community housing sector is facing significant funding cuts, reorganisation and the requirement to meet additional costs. Could the minister please advise the Assembly of the basis for the proposed changes, most specifically whether
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