SCHOOL AMALGAMATIONS

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): My question is again to the Minister for Education and Child Development. When the minister visited the schools targeted for amalgamation why, at least on some occasions, did she not allow parent representatives to attend her meetings with the school leaders?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI (Hartley—Minister for Education and Child Development) (14:25]): That was certainly not my instruction. In fact—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: I am very accessible, but that does not extend to me actually picking up the phone and making the appointments. I was not making the appointments. However, at the majority of the meetings parents were present. In fact, I always made a very significant effort to engage with the parents when they were there. It was a very useful opportunity. I will be meeting this week, I think, with the Save Our Schools group.

This has been a very useful exercise. If there are parents who for some reason—certainly not by my direction—were not able to participate, then I am very happy to receive further correspondence from them. Of course, I have very significant review reports presently with me and I think they probably cover all the issues that parents are concerned about.