Grievance Debate

ADELAIDE HIGH SCHOOL

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:11): We heard in question time today the member for Adelaide who has been a very strong advocate for her constituents, particularly in the northern part of her electorate in Prospect, Nailsworth, Collinswood, Fitzroy and Thorngate, about how they cannot get their students into—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Croydon!

Mr PISONI: —Adelaide High School. Of course, at the last election the Liberal Party proposed a second campus of Adelaide High School to be built on the Bowden site. What we find out today is that a report in The Messenger—and I congratulate the local Messenger for following this issue because it is a very important issue for those living in the inner north of Adelaide who wish to send their children to a government school and feel it is inappropriate that they go all the way out to Gepps Cross, which is the solution that the government has offered them in the building of the super school.

The planned expansion of the Adelaide High School will not meet its 2010 deadline, it reports, but of course when the government made the promise during the election climate, it was supposed to open in 2013. The report continues that in order to build this extension:

The government is also seeking endorsement from the custodians of the parklands—the City Council—to build onto 2300sq m of Ellis Park.

Let's go back to what the Premier said earlier in deliberately deceiving those who have been involved in this debate by suggesting that the governing council chose sites that needed to encroach on the Parklands. The facts are that the governing council were presented with six options for the extension of Adelaide High School. Five of those options provided by the department needed the building to encroach on the Parklands—five out of six of those options. The sixth option was dismissed as being far too expensive.

It is the Premier (when minister of education) who has been deceiving South Australians living in the inner northern suburbs about the real reasons why the government has broken its promise not to build on the Parklands. We have to look at why the government even had this policy in the first place.

I will take you back in a quick history lesson because on 27 February 2010 the Liberal Party, under Isobel Redmond, released a policy to build a second campus for 1,000 students of Adelaide High School at the Clipsal Bowden site—overwhelmingly accepted as a great policy and seen as very valuable for the members of those living in the inner north. Of course, when Isobel Redmond released that policy, we had 70 or 80 members of the community out there at the news conference endorsing the policy.

For those living in Prospect, many of whom were old scholars of Adelaide High School, this had uniform and anonymous support because we know that since 2002 the government has been advised and been looking for sites for an extra city high school. But instead of admitting that the Liberal policy was right, it went out and cobbled together a policy in response to the Liberal Party policy. That was released on 16 March 2010.

What is interesting is, if you read a few paragraphs down that are specific to Adelaide High School, the then premier and the then education minister visited Adelaide High School to unveil plans. What did the Premier say in question time today? He said that there were options presented, but the plans were revealed before the election, apparently, according to the government. Plans were released to the school.

The release goes on to state that 'Adelaide High School, the state's first free high school, will be expanded to cater for up to 250 more students from 2013'—that was when students were moving in—'without encroaching on Park Lands.' Here we have the Premier who says he wants to do business differently to the former premier, Mike Rann, caught out in parliament today trying to disguise the fact that the choice for building on the Parklands was that of the school community.

The facts are that it was a promise that was cobbled together that could never be delivered. It was a failed attempt to try to save Jane Lomax-Smith in the seat of Adelaide and, of course, the member for Adelaide identified the need for a high school in the inner northern suburbs as a candidate when she was doorknocking. She made me aware of how important that policy was and we drafted that policy. That was a good policy and it won the seat of Adelaide for the Liberal Party. That is how important it is.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Alas, not the election.

Mr PISONI: I know the member for Croydon is very pleased to see the end of Dr Lomax-Smith. However, we are very pleased to welcome the member for Adelaide into this parliament in South Australia. This is not the only issue, of course. There were many other education issues and service issues that were important to those living in the electorate of Adelaide. But we cannot go past the fact that, again, this government has deceived the people of Adelaide. The report in the Messenger today states:

In an email response, an education department spokeswoman said the government was continuing to work with the school governing council on the expansion. She declined to answer why the project had been delayed, when work would commence and when the expansion would be completed.

So, here we are: a rock-solid guarantee before the election; 18 months after the election, no idea.