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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-10-27 Daily Xml
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Parliamentary Committees

PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE: PORT AUGUSTA AREA SCHOOL REDEVELOPMENT—STIRLING CAMPUS

Adjourned debate on motion of Mr Piccolo:

That the 381st report of the committee, entitled Port Augusta Area School Redevelopment—Stirling Campus, be noted.

(Continued from 29 September 2010.)

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (11:38): I will finish my report from the committee regarding the Port Augusta Secondary School. The last time this matter came before the house I provided an overview, and the conclusion was that the construction of a completely new school would be the most costly alternative. This was discounted as a number of the existing buildings are reasonably new and of a solid construction, in good condition and able to be redeveloped in a cost-effective manner.

The committee found that the preferred option is to redevelop the current site to: provide refurbished middle and senior school accommodation; establish a second kitchen in home economics; and refurbish the administration building to consolidate administration, student services, special education, student amenities, staff lounge, Aboriginal education centre, car park extension, fire mains and a site power upgrade. Construction is due to commence immediately and will be completed by December 2011.

Based upon the evidence presented to it, and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public work.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (11:40): I will just say a few words on this project. While, as everybody in this place knows, I have serious concerns about how the government handles education in rural and regional South Australia, I am very pleased to say that this is a very positive project. I know that it is causing significant disruption and additional work for principal Paul Billows and deputy principal Iain Elliott, and all their staff and students. I think it is also long overdue, but I am certainly very pleased that it is happening.

This is a good project, combining essentially two campuses in Port Augusta into one. It will be very positive for the students, and, in fact, for the City of Port Augusta more broadly, to have a new and improved redeveloped secondary school right next to the CBD, Braddock Oval, the Central Oval sporting precinct and also, very importantly, the Port Augusta Youth Centre, which does some wonderful work. That centre allows for some special tuition for students needing some extra support, very often Indigenous students, and they are able to get that extra tuition in a more comfortable one-on-one environment than they might in the regular mainstream high school environment.

I commend the project. I caution everybody involved with it in regard to the difficulties of delays. Right now, it is on track to be finished in December 2011, which would then start the new school year off in 2012. As we all know, when it comes to school years, sporting seasons, or anything like that, a small delay in completion can cause a long delay in commencement of use. If that slips by just a few months, we may, unfortunately, miss a whole school year potentially, but I know that everybody working on the project will do everything they can to make sure that does not happen. I am certainly very pleased that the project is going ahead, and good work by everybody involved in that project.

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (11:42): Quite clearly, the opposition supported this project in Public Works. There was never any debate or argument about that. It was a project that needed doing. In typical Rann style they tried to get it up so they would sweeten up the election, so that they might win the seat after the member for Stuart left, but the new member for Stuart is cut and dried. He has got the thing; they have got a new school, which is the major outcome. We were pleased to work with the government members of the committee on this matter to get the school up and running.

I heard what the member for Stuart said about potential delays. We will watch that. We get quarterly reports, so we will be watching that to make sure it is on track, and following through on that. It is a good project. There are never enough new school buildings, there are never enough new schools, as we all know. Our children's education is absolutely paramount, so we look forward with interest to the opening of the building. Public Works Committee members will be invited and it is highly likely that we will go up and have a look at the official opening. The member for Stuart can provide us with his own unique hospitality after the opening. Yes, Madam Speaker, we do support the project and look forward to its completion.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (11:43): School bus driving and high school teaching, it is all coming back this morning. I was appointed a teacher at Port Augusta High School in 1972—

An honourable member: Fifty-two.

Dr McFETRIDGE: That was a good year, a very good year, 1952, but 1972 was an even better year, because I was appointed a teacher at Port Augusta High School, and I actually met my wife up there; she was a dental therapist at the time. So it was a very good year. I was teaching woodwork and metalwork up there. I was driving the school bus, not only, as I said before in a previous contribution, to Stirling North and to Davenport Aboriginal community but I also had to drive the school bus with kids doing woodwork across to Willsden Primary School, where there was one of the remnants of the old grade 7 woodwork centres.

That was just the start of the redevelopment of schools at Port Augusta when we started using Willsden Primary School. Then there was the Port Augusta High School complex by the railway station in, I think it is Augusta Terrace—

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Flinders Terrace.

Dr McFETRIDGE: Sorry, Flinders Terrace, where the high school main campus was. It was a terrific school. The kids were fantastic there. A lot of the Aboriginal kids introduced me to their families; I got to know them well, and that is where I got my introduction to the huge gaps that exist between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal families and communities in Australia, so I have continued to follow that interest.

The other thing that we did when we were at Port Augusta in 1974 and 1975 is that we built a new campus for the high school. The high school was overcrowded, so they built the new Augusta Park High School, and I remember spending many hours (out of hours on weekends and at night) fitting out the new woodwork and metalwork facilities at the Augusta Park High School, as it was then.

The demographics of the area have changed. The whole community seems to be changing. Now we have another revamp, a consolidation, of high school education in South Australia. I see that the motion refers to the Port Augusta Area School. I think it is still the Port Augusta High School, not the Port Augusta Area School. There is still a number of primary schools in Port Augusta, so I do not see why you would have an area school.

This is a terrific school. I have very fond memories of the school and the community at Port Augusta, and I just hope that they are continuing to get what they deserve in terms of better facilities and increased resources right across the spectrum, particularly in schooling. Having been a teacher there and having gone back many times with the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee to talk to Aboriginal community groups, I know that we really need to make sure that we are giving this community every bit of assistance so that they can reap the benefits of the potential that already exists there, not only in those fantastic kids who I taught many years ago and who are there now but also in the communities. It is a terrific town. I have many fond memories of it, and I hope that this development of the Port Augusta High School is something that everybody up there is able to benefit from.

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (11:47): I agree with the member for Morphett: it is the Port Augusta Secondary School, that is correct. I thank members opposite for their support for the proposal, both on the committee and in this place. I put on record that I differ from the member for Finniss' comments in that there have been a number of schools in both government held and opposition held seats which have come to the committee's attention, so to suggest that it was somehow designed for the election is incorrect. I remind members opposite of the official Liberal Party policy regarding education facilities. It is the 'two trees' policy now, I understand, for education facilities. So, with those comments—

Members interjecting:

Mr PICCOLO: I thought that might get a response—I commend the motion to members.

Motion carried.

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