17 SEPTEMBER 2014 Wednesday, 17 September 2014
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17 SEPTEMBER 2014 www.hansard.act.gov.au Wednesday, 17 September 2014 Mr Harry Evans (Condolence statement by Speaker) .............................................. 2765 Schools—infrastructure ........................................................................................... 2765 Energy—renewable .................................................................................................. 2781 Leave of absence ...................................................................................................... 2805 Questions without notice: Canberra Hospital—bed occupancy rates ..................................................... 2805 Health—costs ................................................................................................ 2808 Transport—light rail ..................................................................................... 2810 ACT Ambulance Service—case management system ................................. 2811 Education—curriculum ................................................................................ 2812 Education—teacher concerns ....................................................................... 2814 Children and young people—disability services .......................................... 2817 Planning—proposed swimming pool ........................................................... 2819 Economy—stimulus ..................................................................................... 2820 Civic—revitalisation ................................................................................................ 2822 Canberra Hospital—adult mental health unit .......................................................... 2842 Arts—support ........................................................................................................... 2859 Tourism—visitor numbers ....................................................................................... 2874 Adjournment: Education—awards ....................................................................................... 2888 Mr George Lemon ........................................................................................ 2888 Tuggeranong United Football Club .............................................................. 2890 Tuggeranong Hawks Football Club .............................................................. 2890 Spence Children’s Cottage ........................................................................... 2891 Dementia ....................................................................................................... 2892 Lions clubs .................................................................................................... 2893 Legislative Assembly for the ACT Wednesday, 17 September 2014 MADAM SPEAKER (Mrs Dunne) took the chair at 10 am and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory. Mr Harry Evans Condolence statement by Speaker MADAM SPEAKER: I wish to advise members of the recent death of Mr Harry Evans, former Clerk of the Australian Senate. He was a prominent Canberran who will be remembered for his fierce defences of the Senate as an institution, the rights of individual senators and of the value of parliamentary democracy. As a mark of respect to the memory of Mr Evans, I ask all members to rise in their places. Members standing in their places— MADAM SPEAKER: I thank members. Schools—infrastructure MR DOSZPOT (Molonglo) (10.02): I move: That this Assembly: (1) notes: (a) recent research has shown that many ACT public schools are at capacity or will reach capacity within a few years; (b) that same research indicates that capacity issues are most evident in the north and inner south; (c) the Labor government closed 23 schools in 2006-2007, with five of those schools located in the north and inner south; (d) the Education and Training Directorate response to claims of over capacity indicates a lack of medium to long term planning with the most common solution being increased use of transportable buildings; (e) that adding to the pressures of capacity is the fact that the majority of ACT schools are already over 40 years old; (f) that several schools have had recent incidents involving faulty wiring and switchboards; (g) the additional concern of teachers at the absence of heating and cooling in many of our schools; and (h) the Labor Party’s 2012 election promise to commit $70 million to upgrade and maintain public school infrastructure which is yet to be delivered; and 2765 17 September 2014 Legislative Assembly for the ACT (2) calls on the government to: (a) undertake more regular and more detailed maintenance audits of our public school infrastructure so that Canberra families can be certain their children are safe at ACT public schools; (b) consult more widely with the community on the future needs of Canberra families in respect of school size, location and facilities; (c) commit additional funds this financial year to deliver improvements to those schools that have been waiting years for upgrades including cooling and heating in classrooms; (d) make public the government’s plans and timeline for future upgrades to Canberra schools; and (e) make school infrastructure a priority. On Tuesday, 6 May this year, there was an electrical incident at Gowrie Primary School that resulted in a staff member being hospitalised and students at both the primary and preschools being forced to relocate for three days. The primary school classes were relocated to Birrigai. Later that month, Canberra Girls Grammar was forced to cancel a camp at Birrigai due to asbestos concerns. Last month, an electrical fault emergency at Belconnen High School forced the school to evacuate 450 students and staff. Last week, a fire alarm at Lyneham High School forced staff and students at that school to be evacuated. In 2012, Taylor Primary School was closed for 18 months after wind damage exposed loose asbestos and the school required $13 million of emergency restoration and rebuild. Gowrie Primary School was opened in 1983. Belconnen High School was opened in 1971 and is awaiting a $28 million 2012 election commitment to be upgraded. Lyneham High School was opened in 1959. Taylor Primary School was first opened in 1978. One could suggest, and no doubt the minister will say, that these incidents are just unfortunate happenstances. Unfortunate, yes, they are; happenstance, no, they are not. Happenstance in my dictionary suggests something that happens by chance. In these incidents, it was not chance that the switchboards were faulty. It was an inevitability. And I suggest these recent events will not be, and are not, isolated cases. We have an impressive public education record in the ACT. Our schools regularly score well in NAPLAN testing; our teachers are the recipients of national awards for teaching excellence. And it is true that even some of our school buildings have won national awards for architecture. Gungahlin College is, by any measure, state of the art. It cost $63 million to build and, my understanding is, several million more dollars were spent in fitout. But it is one of a small handful of schools that fit that category. We heard recently that Coombs school, a $45 million promise in the 2012 election which was due to start last year, is now a $47 million dollar promise with proposed construction to start this financial year. Harrison school is impressive in its design and layout. 2766 Legislative Assembly for the ACT 17 September 2014 But pre 1980s and 1970s schools are far more common and so are their faults. If you look at the map on the ACT education directorate site, there are 97 public school sites, often with several levels of schooling co-located on the one site. At those sites a significant and overwhelming majority of the buildings are over 30 years old. Many— too many—are over 50 years of age. And all of these older schools have building issues. Too many of our schools have leaky roofs; most have asbestos; some have appallingly antiquated toilet facilities, cracked and dangerous play areas. The five-year schools infrastructure refurbishment program for older ACT public schools wound up in 2011 and cost $86 million. The intention of the program was for upgrades and refurbishments in schools more than 12 years old. The fact that many schools felt compelled to write to the Gonski committee when it sought submissions from schools on what they were lacking, at about the time the refurbishment program was being wound up, suggests funding fell short and the refurbishments were not completed. Many Canberra schools listed such basic things as roofs, repairs to ceilings, lighting and ceiling upgrades, refurbishments of toilets. Dickson College bemoaned the fact that while the school had two lifts to provide disabled access to the second level of the schools, the lifts were unreliable and regularly broke down, frequently trapping students for a considerable time. Others referred to asbestos. And indeed, given the age of the school, many have some form of asbestos or other hazardous material. To manage this, schools are audited for asbestos annually and for dangerous and hazardous materials every three years. Building condition assessments of all schools are also conducted on a three-year rolling average. The 2012-2013 DET annual report advises a total of $14.131 million was spent on school repairs and maintenance, and in 2012-13 28 schools were assessed. But as there were 86 schools in that