SCHOOL AMALGAMATIONS

Ms BREUER (Giles) (15:11): I rise to speak on a couple of issues today, but first I want to express my concern about what seems to me to be a potential hijack of the process regarding the proposal to amalgamate many of the of schools in Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Pirie and form some super schools. A number of things are being discussed at present. At present, I am frightened that the process might be hijacked.

The AEU has expressed concern at the process and what is happening, and I certainly have expressed my concerns in my community as well. I want parents to come out and say what they want. A select group in each community has come up with proposals for our communities, and I do not think the wide cross-section of the community has any understanding of what is happening. I do not think parents of unborn children have any understanding of what is happening. Certainly, parents who are being asked to make decisions may not have their children in schools for much longer.

I have been involved in the process from the start. I have said right from the start that consultation is essential, but I do not think it has been done terribly well. I do not think they understand what consultation is about. A lot of information has been put out under the Education Works banner and people do not understand what Education Works is about. As with much of the education department's terminology, people switch off because they do not understand unless they are directly involved.

I am concerned about the fact in Whyalla that every high school student will be on the one campus. However, I am excited by the concept that we will have a brand new school and brand new facilities, etc. I have some concerns about it—all the children in one school, how do we get them to that school, what happens if you are expelled from the school, what happens if you are bullied in the school, what happens if our community expands, as they keep telling us it will? So, I have lots of concerns.

At the moment, I am frightened about the publicity that is going out and that people will not look at this rationally or think about it carefully and perhaps knock it back without really thinking it through or accept it without thinking it through. I urge our communities to look at this seriously and take into account all the issues. We do not have a lot of time, but we certainly need to look at it very carefully.

This brings me to an issue that has been pushed—that is, that it will be much easier to attract professional staff to schools if we have super schools with their much better facilities and resources, etc. I am speaking particularly from the point of view of my electorate on the difficulties of attracting and retaining professionals in country regions.

Why will professionals not come out to our country areas? For example, regarding the medical profession in Whyalla, there is not one Australian trained doctor. They are all overseas trained doctors, and basically they have come from countries that need those skills there, not that I am questioning why they have come to us. We have a number of communication and cultural problems as a result of this. Some of them have come for the money. We do not seem to have much of the old GP relationship that used to happen.

However, the biggest problem is that they all commute. This happens with other health professionals as well. They commute to our communities. They come in for the three or four days a week (maybe five days if we are lucky), then they come back to Adelaide for the weekend. This is happening in all sorts of areas.

It is a major problem for country communities because these professionals do not get involved in the community and, if they do not get to be part of your community, they do not understand your community. It is not just health professionals who are doing this; it is also happening with some of the big companies. I know that in Whyalla with OneSteel many of the senior management commute to Adelaide each weekend.

I laugh at the current proposal that has been given to us in these country towns (Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Pirie) that we are going to get all these fly-in and fly-out people who are going to go to the mining areas. I think it is an absolute nonsense. We are not going to benefit from that particularly, because we cannot even keep the professionals that we have now. They fly in and they fly out to Adelaide at the weekends. So, why would people come and live in our communities to go up north? I think it is an absolute nonsense.

This means that you do not have people living in your community who are a vital part of your community. They are the ones who make the decisions about the community. They do not understand the emotional side of what goes on in our towns, they do not understand the social side of what goes on in our towns, and it is becoming more and more difficult for them to do this. Okay, maybe they want to send their kids to school in Adelaide so they want their families to be down there, but if you get a job in our community you bloody come and live in our community and be part of our community and stop taking your dollars out at weekends down to Adelaide and putting them in someone's pocket down here.

I think it is a major issue for all of us. We have to look at it seriously. One thing that is happening is that country scholarships are working very well with teachers and with some health professionals, physios, allied health, etc. Country scholarships to our young people are bringing them back to us, and that is great, but we still have a long way to go. I think that if we train them more in the country we would also do well, and I ask that we look again at teaching in our university in Whyalla. It works for social workers and it works for nurses, so let us bring teachers back as well.

Time expired.