Page 1658 - Week 05 - Thursday, 8 May 2008
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years, the school had between about 120 and 150 students. The other half of the building is occupied by other groups. They have a very nice school hall, thank you very much, which I am sure could be opened up to the community.
It does not cost much to bring a school like Cook back. I suspect that the running costs would be a quarter of a million dollars a year. It is a small school. Yet the government is going to spend millions on a centre that no-one in that community wants. You could do a centre if you had the school going and just utilised the school hall that exists as part of the school. That would be listening to the community; that would be sensible; and that would save money.
At least you are not doing anything to Flynn yet. We all suspect what is going to happen there if the court case by those valiant P&C people at Flynn is not successful. They have taken on this government, despite all the obstacles put in their way, including legal obstacles, to make their job as hard as possible—things for which, if we did, we would have been absolutely howled down.
I can think of a similar situation when we rightfully closed the School without Walls and the completely different approach taken there, to not put obstacles in the way of a group who wanted to save that school, unlike what you people have done in terms of the Flynn community and the legal obstacles you have put in their way. Irrespective of the court process there, it is a case of “watch this space”. If something goes wrong for the community there, what is going to happen? That would be probably bulldozed, I would imagine. That is what the people of Flynn think.
In regard to Hall, I think you are going to give them a community hall. Hall has not only some great space in the old school building, which, thank God, is heritage listed—that gives us the opportunity of bringing that one back—but it has a magnificent pavilion, showground and community hall which you people should know about. It is used. They do not need a hall. They want their school back. Business at the Hall shops has dropped about a third since the school closed. That school provided quality education since 1911 and you arbitrarily closed it.
I have heard you are only saving something like $80,000 or $90,000 a year by closing that one. How much are you going to spend in terms of a useless hall there when you have got a magnificent hall down near the pavilion and you have got outdoor space actually at the school itself, together with tennis courts and several other items which actually were put in during my tenure as sports minister and education minister? If you go down to where the pavilion, the town hall and the sportsgrounds are, it is a very nice facility indeed. Money has been spent there over the years and you have a great facility there. All it needs back is its school. Save yourselves some money. Bring the school back rather than building something useless the community does not actually want.
In my brief time, those are some of the things I would like to touch on in relation to some of the more macro issues and in terms of some specific issues in my electorate. While I am on my electorate and looking at the arts, yes, there are some interesting things there in the arts. But I see there is no money in terms of a feasibility study as to what we do with the Canberra Theatre and planning for the future there at a macro
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