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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-26 Daily Xml
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ADELAIDE HIGH SCHOOL

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (15:47): The Weatherill Labor government has had more than a decade to deliver a solution to the serious education concerns of families in Adelaide's inner north, including the Prospect and Walkerville council areas. During this period, Adelaide High School's rezoning and enrolment issues have been consistently ignored by the Weatherill Labor government. In 2009, the Liberal Party released a policy to build a second campus of Adelaide High School that would cater for 1,000 students. Four days prior to the 2010 election, in a cobbled-together plan, the Labor government came out with a press release, and I quote:

By expanding the schools, we can relax the zones—so that students from Prospect or Walkerville, for instance, will be able to attend Adelaide High School.

The press release, again, four days from the 2010 election, went on to state:

Adelaide High School, the state's first free high school, will be expanded to cater for up to 250 more students from 2013 without encroaching on the Parklands.

Well, it is now 2013 and none of this has been realised. The school does encroach on the Parklands, it has not expanded the zone at all, there has been no release of a new zone, and in 2013 not one single extra student is at the school, and in fact only the slab is being poured, so the building is quite far away from being completed.

Just to give this house some idea and understanding of how this government operates, in estimates this year, on Friday 28 June, minister Rankine, when questioned about the promised expansion of the zone to include Walkerville and Prospect, firstly made me read out the quote and relied on the weasel word of 'for example' Prospect and Walkerville as her excuse as to why Walkerville and Prospect were not included and why the zoning was not released.

When questioned on the 'up to 250 extra places' and when they would be realised, the minister relied on the words 'up to' meaning that even one space could mean up to 250. So, when the government came out today with its new planned city high school for 1,000 students in 2019, I must say I find it hard to believe any part of that press release, given we still have not realised any of the 2010 release that was promised.

When looking at even achieving the 250 extra places at Adelaide High School, the building that is allowing for the expansion will not be ready until at least the beginning of 2015. The principal at the school has indicated that only 50 extra students per year would be allowed, starting from year 8, as that would add up to the 250 places over a five-year period. The actual expansion announced four years ago will not be realised until 2019, so there is absolutely no way the residents of Prospect or Walkerville could in any way be fooled into believing that a whole school could be built by this Labor government that is still trying to fulfil its 2010 election promise.

This is another example of the Labor Party copying very good Liberal Party policy and trying to bring out a school idea that is uncosted and there is no site determined. There are no studies, no research and no information at all about this policy, and it is absolutely unbelievable that it will even happen. I can assure everybody, as promised leading up to the 2010 election, that the Liberal Party will deliver a second high school that will cater for the residents of Prospect and Walkerville council areas, and you can rest assured that I will not give up until that school is completely built. I hope that no-one is foolish enough to believe that this Labor government, which has failed to deliver on a long list of promises, has any hope or any intention of delivering on this uncosted policy to try to win the seat of Adelaide.

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