Grievance Debate

School Zoning

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (15:06): Disappointed, appalled, angry, furious, devastated—those are words people in Badcoe have used in the past fortnight to describe their reaction to the shock decision by this Liberal government to exclude their children from attending Adelaide High and Adelaide Botanic High. I have had parents in tears in my office, on the phone and at the school gates since this decision was suddenly dumped on them with no warning last week.

For four years, families in my area—Black Forest, Glandore, Clarence Park and Kurralta Park—were expecting their children to be able to attend city high schools. To say that people were excited about this is a gross understatement. Kathryn from Clarence Park told me how she took her son to show him Botanic High, the school he thought he would be attending next year. Her son has a passion for science and technology and, as she showed him around Botanic High, she watched as his eyes lit up when he saw the facilities and heard about the great teachers he was going to get next year. She was crying as she had to tell him last week that that was not happening anymore.

Kathryn passed on a private education scholarship for her son and a place at a local non-government school so that he could go to Botanic High. She was shocked and outraged to learn that that opportunity has been stolen from her son. The scholarship and the place at that school are no longer available to her—and there are many more Kathryns out there. If you stand at any local primary school gate this afternoon you will be flooded with such stories from my constituents.

In the last four years, people have made some of the biggest decisions of their lives—buying a home, choosing their child's education—and in these four years since the school zone map was released the Liberals, too, have had the opportunity to come clean with my community. Did the Liberal Party ever suggest that they opposed the school zone expansion to the west and to south-western suburbs? No, they did not. Did they ever suggest that moving year 7 into high school would see kids in the west and south-western suburbs miss out? No, never.

They could have told the truth. They could have told people in Black Forest, Kurralta Park, Clarence Park and Glandore, and in the seat of West Torrens as well, that their decision to put year 7 into high school would mean that their kids would not be able to go to a city high school. But they knew that in a marginal seat such as Badcoe they would not stand a chance if they booted Badcoe kids out.

Clearly, this government has now made a conscious decision to just walk away from the people of Badcoe. They stopped listening, they do not want to act in the best interests of my community and really, they have also let down the people who did vote Liberal at the last election—they have ripped them off. Listen to this: Michael of Black Forest says:

I've always been a Liberal voter, however, I'm enraged at the deceit and contempt that this decision shows and I'll be doing everything I can to ensure this government is removed from power at the next election.

Tim of Black Forest says:

I'm appalled at the lack of consultation…I'm disappointed my kids will miss out because of a political decision. I've always been a Liberal supporter but that's now changed.

Chelsea from Glandore says:

You have no idea how many people have been left devastated by this heartless decision. I can never again trust the Liberal Government.

I just want to address one more thing: this government, in particular the education minister, has run a bit of a smear campaign against me, suggesting that my support of those communities who have been axed from the zone means that the Labor side and I do not support our local public schools, particularly Plympton International College. That is simply a lie.

I supported the school well before I was elected as the local MP. I frequently visited the school to see its Mandarin program in action, to join in sports activities, to attend its governing council meetings, and the education minister seemed outraged about it, but to support their awards program as well. I have actively advocated on behalf of the school for various improvements. I have regularly checked in on the $2.5 million new STEM facility, which is a Labor investment and which I will be proud to see opened next week. I will be there when that is opened.

I am also incredibly proud that another $3 million was committed to that school by the former Labor government under the Building Better Schools program. Why did we commit that? Because we believe in Plympton International College. We want to see it thrive. My opinion is that it is a great school and it will continue to be, if this government invests in it and that is what they should be doing: investing in all our schools.