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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-03 Daily Xml
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SCHOOL BUSES

Mrs PENFOLD (Flinders) (15:38): Last Thursday all schools on Eyre Peninsula were closed because of a possible threat from fire—a decision made instantaneously, supposedly for the safety and wellbeing of students, yet a promise that really would look after the safety and wellbeing of students made in 2004 by the then minister for education to put air-conditioning and seatbelts in school buses in the region as a matter of priority has been ignored. Even worse, I understand that the budget for replacement school buses since then has not been fully expended.

Rural students and families are fed up with the government's grand gestures and media grabs. It must immediately do what it promised years ago and provide regional children with safe buses. I have been advised that the few buses that have been replaced could not take the rough conditions, with air-conditioning breaking down and doors jamming, leaking dust into interiors. People have told me that they have been told to 'shut up' when questioning bus maintenance. When visiting Miltaburra school last year I photographed two buses—one a 1989 model and a 1990 model. Neither bus was air-conditioned, neither had seatbelts, neither was dust proof and both were rusty. On one bus the step was so rusty that it had been fixed with rivets. These are indicative of departmental buses.

Recently, I compared putting our children into hot buses being tantamount to child abuse. In response, the minister's spokesperson on the ABC tried to suggest that the buses referred to without air conditioning and seatbelts were privately contracted buses. I can assure the house that the buses to which I referred are not contract buses, they are education department buses. An article in The Advertiser on 7 February 2009 stated:

Medical experts have warned that prolonged exposure to temperatures above 40C can be fatal to children in cars.

Dale Howell, Chairperson of the Cummins Area School Governing Council, in an article in the Port Lincoln Times on 17 February 2009 said, 'It could be anywhere up to 60 degrees in those buses.' In the same article, parent Davina Nettle stated:

The heat had taken its toll of the children's health, with one of her daughter's friends suffering a blood nose possibly due to the heat inside the bus.

Over the years, I have lobbied time and again on behalf of families for air conditioning and seatbelts to be fitted as standard in school buses as safety and health measures.

The major complaints are the absence of air conditioning, the large amounts of dust sucked into the bus, the absence of seatbelts and the unsuitability of buses chosen for travel on country roads. It is not too dramatic to ask: will there have to be a death before action is taken? I quote from letters:

The children are exposed to extreme heat. We regularly experience days in the high thirties and beyond and by the time the children get to the bus the temperature is exacerbated by having to sit in an already very hot bus.

The children and driver try to get some relief by opening the windows but because of the dirt roads the dust that is sucked into the bus becomes a health issue particularly to our children with asthma.

One twelve-year-old girl is on daily medication and according to her GP dust is the main cause.

Even with the windows closed the bus still seems to leak a large amount of dust and the road noise is quite unacceptable.

It continues to worry us that our children are still vulnerable riding on rough roads where kangaroos are common and they are still not in seatbelts.

We are concerned about the suitability of the buses to travel on gravel roads as there are safety issues on windy days when the door is blown open and the bus automatically decelerates. In which case, someone has to hold the door shut so that the bus can continue on its journey.

Local bus drivers have recorded temperatures in the low 50sC on buses in Cleve, where just one of the school's five government buses is air-conditioned.

Mangalo parents Andrew and Rebecca Story believe their children's health is being seriously affected by high bus temperatures. Mrs Story said, 'We've got one little boy with serious allergies and the heat affects him on the way home, his face gets puffy and they're all just tired out.'

We are constantly being bombarded with messages and information about global warming or climate change, and greenhouse gases creating a rise in temperature. We are told to expect a higher number of days of above 40° Celsius temperatures.

Added to the health issues is an equal if not greater risk in a heatwave with buses which are not air-conditioned is the lack of communication. Mobile phones, even satellite phones, do not work reliably in many of these areas, so drivers and children are potentially without contact with emergency support in the event of a crisis. I am told that it took more than 1½ hours for a volunteer ambulance to reach a school it was called to. What would it be like if this had been a bus on a road somewhere without proper communication—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs PENFOLD: —in a heatwave.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member was going beyond the privileges. Time has expired.

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