Page 3997 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 5 December 2007
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other schools there that community has really taken it in the toughest possible way. It is all fine for rational decisions to be undertaken for the good of the whole community, but not if there is damage that cannot be repaired.
There is an interesting debate around the demographics of these areas and what is likely to happen in five or 10 years. For example, at Kambah high school I think there were 250-odd students and it did not rate highly on the minister’s radar, but I do recall that the numbers were not that dramatically low. When you look at that high school and its performance, at the numbers and at the fact that it is a fairly unique school in that part of the ACT, you would think that the government might have taken a better balanced decision, because now we have students who have to bus from that area of the Tuggeranong valley a hell of a long way to go to school.
The point is that if for the mere saving of some money and for perhaps the shifting of a couple of hundred students you are going to cause a lot of damage to that area socially, you have got to really look at the outcomes. What we would argue is that some bad decisions have been made simply on a mathematical and a statistical basis.
Mr Barr: So we should not spend $54 million building them a new school? Is that the position? That is the good money after bad?
MR PRATT: And see Mr Gentleman, the member for Brindabella, over there nodding in agreement with the minister for education who is interjecting and saying, “Well, we had to close those schools, so tough.” The fact is, Mr Speaker—
Mr Barr: No, my interjection was: do you oppose spending $54 million on a new school in that area?
MR PRATT: Mr Speaker, if we can talk over those these interjections we might be able to conclude this debate at some time.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Cease interjecting, Mr Barr.
MR PRATT: We see little heart and soul on the part of the government and its backbenchers about the impact on these local communities. We talk about the saving of money. We talk about decisions being made on the basis that there may be a better concentration of schooling assets as a consequence of shutting down schools across the spectrum. The perfect example of this government’s planning stuff-up in relation to all this in my view was when Minister Barr was asked by a Kambah high school student why he would not want to keep both Wanniassa and Kambah high schools open. I think his response, as reported to me by the students, was, “Well, two 7-10 high schools within two kilometres of each other is unviable.” But if we look closely at the proposal we see a new P-10 school will be built on the Kambah high school site in 2011. But isn’t that within—
Mr Barr: Yes, that’s right; that will incorporate Village Creek, Urambi and Mount—
MR SPEAKER: Mr Barr, cease interjecting.
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