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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-06-18 Daily Xml
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SCHOOL AMALGAMATIONS

Ms BREUER (Giles) (14:32): My question, on a subject very dear to me, is directed to the Minister for Education. How will the Whyalla school communities spend the funds allocated to them under the commonwealth Building the Education Revolution initiative?

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH (Adelaide—Minister for Education, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:32): I thank the member for Giles for her question and I also thank her for her leadership in working with those school communities in Whyalla who are at the moment going through a very important consultation. She has shown extraordinary leadership with these 19 schools and preschool communities who are, at this very moment, discussing the future configuration of their education facilities.

The short answer to her question about how they might spend the commonwealth money is that, if they comply with all the commonwealth regulations, of course, they can spend that money in any way they wish. Over the past two years, the Whyalla communities have been discussing the best ways to deliver services in their town and have been looking at the state government's Education Works stage 2 proposals to see how they might engage with this system and benefit the community and provide better educational services.

Certainly, as part of this initiative, being able to spend part of the $82 million that has been allocated for this fund to reshape their education services is a great opportunity for them to work out what would be best for their students in their community with their educational opportunities and employment opportunities in the region. The commonwealth's investment is very significant, but it has been layered on top of the proposals from Education Works and they required that the system should be improved by a range of means.

One of those requirements was to improve curriculum choices and opportunities. Another was to put in place those arrangements that support collocated birth to school continuums of education, so that there is a one-stop shop. The other requirement was the suggestion that the school size should allow a broader curriculum with more diversely relevant curriculum offerings for the local area and the employment opportunities, but also systems that would involve other agencies across government to have other support mechanisms in place in schools and to find a solution for their educational needs that would be demographically sustainable.

I say 'sustainable' because we all know that families are having children later in life, families are smaller, and the number of children in all of our communities is falling over time. Certainly, we know that the unique opportunity the commonwealth has given us with its Building the Education Revolution has put an enormous complexity in place around these plans because now that community has $18.5 million of commonwealth funding to spend, which is a very significant sum of money and must be spent wisely.

As the schools are considering reconfiguring their services, nobody would want that money to be spent on school locations that are no longer going to be in existence and, therefore, there is an onus on us to make sure we spend that money correctly. At the end of the day, the $18.5 million is to be spent by the Whyalla community on their schools, and that money cannot be taken away. It will be spent in that community. The only question is: which sites will it be spent on?

Clearly, no-one denies the time frames in the Building the Education Revolution stimulus package are very tight and it is important that the consultation finds a way of delivering the best services for those schools. I stress that those 19 school communities must decide how they restructure but, whichever way they restructure, every last penny of the money coming from the commonwealth will go to them.

In light of some of the members of the community proposing to bring together or reshape those 19 schools, we have amended the normal Education Works voting process to allow a two-stage procedure. We recognise that Whyalla, Port Pirie and Port Augusta have similar issues and very large plans being discussed. Rather than taking a vote for the schools to close, a special two-step process is being proposed for these large and complex propositions. That is, although there has been much discussion over the past two years, these are very significant proposals with a large amount of capital works depending upon them, and we must get it right.

Rather than voting once, beginning next Tuesday, these three school communities will be asked if they support the proposals put together as a result of the consultation by their local planning committees. If they choose not to support such plans, the commonwealth funds that they have been allocated will be spent on the schools that exist now and the whole issue will be stopped and we will have business as usual.

If they choose to support the proposals in principle, there will be enough time for them to decide on the actual locations of the proposed schools. The date of 10 July is the date by which the last round of proposals have to be in. To clarify: if they choose not to proceed with their restructuring, the sites will be where the schools exist now and they will get the full $18.5 million spent on them; if they decide to vote to proceed, the school communities will progress their proposal.

The way we will proceed with the BER investment is, in agreement with the commonwealth, build the new infrastructure starting on the likely future locations of the schools. If, at the end of the continued work, those schools decide they want to pull back because they have changed their minds, they vote not to close, then the rest of the BER funds will be spent on the old sites. If they decide to progress, they will get a share of the $82 million and there will be a restructure according to the proposal that that community supports.

It is complicated but I wish to stress that they will get the entire $18.5 million, that it is a voluntary process and the school community can walk away from Education Works if they decide they like the status quo. There are very few things that rival the importance of high quality education and the only purpose of this whole consultation work we have done is to get more choice, more options and better outcomes for our children.

The worst brain drain for our children is for them not to fulfil their potential. We want to have the best education system possible, but we do it in consultation with the community. I am sure that, regardless of the outcomes, the community will be engaged and choose what they want.

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