School Zoning

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:33): My question is to the Minister for Education. Why did the minister choose to fund a sufficient expansion for year 7 at Brighton high school, Unley High School, Glenunga high school and Norwood Morialta High School but not allow the suburbs to stay in the zone for Adelaide High School?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:33): I thank the member for the question, and I am happy to answer it. The simple—

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister, please be seated for one moment. If the member for Badcoe interjects again, she will be leaving the chamber. She is on two warnings and she continues to interject.

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell: She is a hero to her people. She stands up for them.

The SPEAKER: Member for Mawson, you are on two warnings as well. I would like to hear the minister's answer.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: In relation to all the schools except Unley High School, the advice from the department is that to change the zones in any of those schools would not have functioned in any way.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: It would hurt the Liberal Party.

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is on two warnings.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The simple fact is that the schools surrounding those other schools were also at capacity. Furthermore, the capacity required could be built with the investment that the state government is making, and in a couple of those situations there will be minor adjustments to the students they are taking from outside zones.

There are practices in some schools where, in addition to students from within zone and in addition to special entry programs, there's also a range of students they can take from outside zone, and they do. Some of those will have to lessen the number of outside zone students, not related to their special entry programs, in a minor way to reduce potentially 10 or 15, maybe 20, in that way. That practice has been happening for some years at some of those schools as they have been getting fuller with urban infill and trends that were identified in the release documents today.

The simple information from the education department was that those schools were full. At Unley High School, that information applied as well but with the additional notice that Unley High has a traditional intake from broader than the zone, and the education department identified that, because we don't have to just build up at Unley High, to enable them to continue work on their master plan—which has been potentially up to a decade in the making and long overdue—building that capacity from 1,200 to 1,700 would continue to provide extra flexibility in the system.

Unley High is at 1,200 at the moment and it's pretty full, but it takes students from outside zone. It will be able to continue doing that with the investment that has been made at Unley High. As a comparison in terms of the $12 million investment extra at Unley High to $18 million at Adelaide High for a smaller number of student capacity, we come back to what we were talking about before, which is that when you have to build vertically it gets more expensive and more complicated. In the numbers required at Adelaide High by the education department—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is on two warnings again.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —that would have meant talking about an investment that would have dwarfed all those other investments that we have talked about. This was the advice from the education department, and the government has done what is necessary and acted in order to ensure that every child can be guaranteed a place—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —in their local zoned school. The zone that was created in the shared zone would have required a build to 2,400, as said, which was not feasible according to the information provided to the government.

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is warned. Do you have another question? Leader of the Opposition.