Page 370 - Week 01 - Thursday, 16 February 2012
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investment in school infrastructure then it would not have taken so long to prepare and submit the appropriate applications that would allow the construction of the new Catholic high school in Throsby. It would have ensured, if it is into quality project management, that it had filled in the paperwork correctly and the first time around, and not had to resubmit it—which seems to be quite an episode in Mr Barr’s life these days; resubmitting things, forgetting to submit things or just plain not doing the job correctly—further delaying the already slow and neglectful approach it has taken to this project in Throsby.
It appears it does not matter that families in the Gungahlin area do not know when their children will have a Catholic high school to attend. It does not matter that this less-than-quality approach to process has already cost the Catholic Education Office a significant amount of money.
The ACT Liberals support quality education across all sectors, government and non-government. We support quality investments. Spending large amounts of taxpayers’ funds does not of itself ensure quality, and under Labor quality is an expendable commodity.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (4.23): With 84 public primary schools, high schools and colleges in the ACT, quality and timely investments in school infrastructure should be discussed as a matter of public importance. These schools aim to provide safe and quality learning environments to over 39,000 children and young people, and the territory’s parents and carers should feel confident that is what their children will find when they go to school each day.
The ACT Greens believe that it is the responsibility of government to ensure the provision of high quality, well resourced and safe learning environments that are open to all students. I believe that the ACT should strive to provide the nation’s best schools, schools that are accessible to all and create pride in our community.
Madam Assistant Speaker, I believe that safe, child-friendly and supportive learning environments are not just about bricks and mortar. Educational institutions can be considered a home of sorts to most of our children for many years. I am sure that we can all find ourselves feeling nostalgic as we drive past our former schools and remember the hallways and playgrounds from our childhood. These schools are places where we experience many of our defining moments and they play a very important part of how we grow up.
We have many old and much-loved schools in the ACT. This is reflective of their importance also in neighbourhood identity. We have a mix of old and new schools and we will have more schools to build in the future. As we begin to plan for the future, it is important that we recognise the significant financial implications of maintaining our schools to the expected high quality and the need to update and respond to the changing needs of students, teachers and the community.
We need to think about the long-term benefits of building sustainable schools and commit to those schools having high green star ratings, such as the new Bonner primary school. We want to see school investment policies that recognise the
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