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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-10-15 Daily Xml
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Parliamentary Committees

Public Works Committee: Unley High School Redevelopment

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:16): I move:

That the 70th report of the committee for the Fifty-Fourth Parliament, entitled Unley High School Redevelopment Project, be noted.

As members are aware, Unley High School was allocated project funding as part of the Department for Education's capital works program. The proposed redevelopment at the high school will include the construction of a new three-storey building, which will provide flexible teaching environments, as well as a new outdoor learning area.

The project also includes refurbishment of existing buildings to improve the street presence, and the high school's connectivity with community. In addition, existing transportable buildings on the school site will be relocated, and some aged relocatable buildings will be demolished.

The total project budget for the redevelopment works at Unley High School is $32.48 million. The works will be staged and construction is expected to be complete in October 2021. When complete, the Unley High School project will deliver a total school enrolment capacity of 1,700 places by 2022, and this provision of additional spaces will support the transition of year 7 students into high school.

The committee examined written evidence from the Department for Education regarding this project and is satisfied that the appropriate consultation in relation to this project has been undertaken. The committee is also satisfied that the project proposal meets the criteria for the examination of projects set out in the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991.

Based on the evidence considered and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the scope of the proposed public works.

Mr DULUK (Waite) (11:18): Can I also add a few words to this very important public works program. As the member for Kavel outlined, this is a $32.5 million all-up project. It is certainly one that has been wanting from the school for many years. I recall when I first became the member for Waite and the school came into my area that funding for Unley High had been neglected for many, many years.

It was only with a change of government and good local advocacy—and it was great to work with the governing council and its chair, Wayne Hobbs, and the school principal, Greg Rolton—that we have been able to see a first load of additional funding of $12 million coming in, and then an additional $20 million of public works funding coming in to cater for the transition of year 7s into high school.

It is fantastic that there are going to be new building works. As I jog past the school, as I do every now and then, I can see it developing there at the moment on Kitchener Street. It is fantastic the community is right behind it. Unley High in coming years is going to be one of the biggest schools south of the CBD, catering for students all around our state, especially many coming with the new changes in the zones of Springbank College. It is so important that the school has modern facilities. Part of the buildings that are being removed or refurbished were first put there in the 1960s, so it is a fantastic outcome for the school community.

As many know, Unley High School is a very longstanding school in South Australia—over 107 years old. Former Prime Minister Gillard was an attendee at Unley High. It has fantastic sports programs—rowing, volleyball and basketball—and performing arts. The school has fantastic students who make such a wonderful contribution locally and are involved in so many projects. I know many of the old scholars have gone on to make contributions in public life as well. Of note, recently the school's open girls' badminton team were crowned state champions, so congratulations to them on their efforts, once again excelling in a school known for its outcomes in sport.

I am looking forward to this project being finished in time for the onslaught of additional students in the coming years, and providing fantastic facilities and services to the people of my community for many years to come.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (11:21): I am really pleased to be able to reflect on the Public Works Committee's report into the upgrade of Unley High School and indicate my gratitude to the Public Works Committee and its Chair, the member for Kavel, in preparing this report, and to the officers within the education department, the Department for Infrastructure and Transport and at Unley High School who have contributed to it. I also recognise the words from the local MP, the member for Waite.

Unley High School, as I am led to believe, has been on the priority list for infrastructure upgrades for an extraordinarily long period of time, and it is very disappointing that some of these works, which are well and truly overdue, were not done many years ago. We were pleased, as we were for so many other schools, when the former government confirmed they would spend $20 million on an upgrade of Unley High School. The Liberal Party indeed supported that commitment when it was announced, matched it the same day, and on coming to government in March 2018 we were very pleased to be able to confirm that $20 million.

When we actually investigated what was necessary to be done at Unley High School to support the appropriate growth in enrolment, to support the year 7s coming into high school and, critically, some of the specialist learning areas that were in existence, a number of them were in existence without change since former Prime Minister Gillard, as the member for Waite mentioned, was at school.

Some of my colleagues I work with in the education department, and who attended Unley High in the 1960s and the 1970s, reported when we went to visit that the facilities seemed to be almost in exactly the same position as they had been back then. The tech studies area at Unley High is a facility to behold for its heritage value to the education system. I cannot tell you how excited the staff and students and Unley High are about the renovations and upgrades to those facilities and also the outstanding new facilities: a new three-storey building that will be built particularly to give some accommodation and special support to some of those junior secondary students who will benefit from having that area.

I know that the member for Unley is a longstanding supporter of the school. I understand his children went there as well. It is certainly a school that has a proud history. The infrastructure it is going to have in the future will enable it to really advance into the 21st century—if only the former government had allowed it to advance into the 21st century earlier in the 21st century.

But I tell you what: it will have been worth the wait—the opportunity it has provided, the additional learning areas, the new three-storey building, as I identified, including home economics, technology, art, science and general learning areas, which are all to be state of the art. In addition, there will be refurbishment and expansion of existing spaces, including a new front of school administration space; the Unley Square, a new outdoor landscaped courtyard with a covered outdoor learning area for formal and informal learning; and, of course, the demolition of ageing infrastructure.

The extra $12½ million dollars this government announced in February 2019 in addition to that initial $20 million commitment is what is enabling this to take place so that we are not just building space to enable the students to fit in the school but enabling the school to offer them the learning environment that they deserve, a learning environment that pays dignity and respect to the student journey and a learning environment in which the curriculum can be delivered in the way it is designed to be taught.

I am very pleased to be the Minister for Education in a government that is investing a record $1.3 billion in education infrastructure. This $32 million commitment at Unley High School is a really valuable part of that investment. It will support a student capacity of at least 1,700 in 2022 when it is complete and the year 7s move into high school.

I commend Greg Rolton and the governing council. The architects are Thomson Rossi and the builders are Lendlease, and construction has commenced. It was a great pleasure to help the school turn the first sod. I suspect they might have managed the building works without my work on the shovel that day, but it was a privilege for me to be able to share in that. I look forward to seeing the completed work at the end of next year.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Innovation and Skills) (11:25): I have quite a long history with Unley High School. My kids went to Unley High School. Certainly, when I first started attending as a parent and as a member of the governing council as a relatively newly elected member of this place, it reminded me very much of how my old school, Salisbury High School, looked, almost exactly down to the decor: the colours, the vinyl floors. Nothing much had happened since the late 1970s in that school. As we know, it is the style of school that went up in the sixties through a large school building program under the Playford government.

I was fortunate when my brother Simon was doing some renos in one of his homes that he had in the north-western suburbs. He pulled the lino up to polish the floorboards, and a whole lot of political ads from newspapers from the 1960s were underneath the lino in perfect condition. He kept the ones that were promoting the Labor Party in that election, and he gave me the ones that were promoting the Liberal Party. I have them framed on the wall in my office amongst my collection of political items.

The list of school building projects and hospital building projects of the Playford government is described as part of the election campaign in that election. Nothing much happened to Unley High School in that time. There were a lot of transportable buildings. I know a major bugbear for the school was that for 25 years there was no state investment in Unley High School. There was a trade centre there that was built with federal funding, but this $32 million that is being spent is very welcome.

It will bring the school up to date, and it will make room for the grade 7 students who are moving in and, of course, those students who are now eligible to move in with the shifting of the Unley zone further west and south. Those in the member for Elder's electorate can have access, as it is their zoned school. Of course, they also have the opportunity to attend—it has changed its name a few times—

An honourable member: Springbank.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —Springbank high school, with the extra investments going on in that school.

One of the terrific programs that has been running has been in conjunction with the Master Plumbers. I was fortunate to introduce that in opposition, introducing the Master Plumbers to the school at that time to bring in a formal plumbing pathway, working with the Master Plumbers. From brief conversations I have had just recently with Greg Rolton, the principal, I know he is very keen to expand the vocational education pathways out of Unley High School.

Unley High School has a very broad demographic; the catchment is very wide. As a matter of fact, we live in Hyde Park and the middle of the road is the school boundary zone for Glenunga High School and Unley High School. We are in the Glenunga High School zone. Fortunately, my kids were very interested in rowing and, as they had a very good rowing program at Unley High, there was room for them to go to Unley High. That is one of the terrific things about the system we have here in South Australia, that there can be a choice for students if there is an ability and the room.

Students at Goodwood Primary have the choice of Adelaide High School or Glenunga, depending on where they live. Those who are in the Goodwood Primary/Unley Primary zone—again, depending on where they live—will have the choice of Unley High School or Glenunga High School; and both schools are receiving enormous upgrades. A similar amount of money is being spent on Glenunga to bring it up to a significant size of about 2,200. It sounds big for a South Australian school, but schools of this size are common in the Eastern States.

Certainly, both schools have been victims of their own success. You never see a house for sale in the Glenunga zone or the Unley zone without it being mentioned that it is in the school zone for Unley or Glenunga High School, as it is very desirable for parents who have school-age children for that to be a consideration when purchasing a home in that area.

The work that is being done will also employ apprentices and trainees as part of the building work, and this is part of our ongoing commitment of course to grow the trades here in South Australia—the traditional trades, as well as new pathways through vocational education into areas that have not traditionally used vocational education before. They are predominantly in your white-collar area. Many of those are also areas that are heavily populated by women in the workforce.

For some strange reason, for many years they have not been given the option of a paid pathway to learning, and we are working with those industries at the moment to introduce a paid pathway to learning. Of course, that will give women more choice when they want a change of career and also give them career pathways where they can start through a vocational pathway and move on to additional further education afterwards.

I am very pleased, as a former parent of a student and former governing council member of Unley High School, to see this development. I, too, was on the shovel with the minister, the Premier and the principal. I do not think we moved much ground from underneath us, Minister for Education, but the opportunity to be there and to celebrate the fact that there was such substantial work being done after 25 years of neglect of state priorities at Unley High School was terrific.

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (11:33): I rise to speak in relation to the redevelopment of Unley High School and speak as an old scholar of Unley High School—always supporting the utmost for the highest, as Unley High School does. I was there at the time of the last major redevelopment of Unley High School, which was considerably—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: In 1983?

Mr PICTON: No, I'm not that old, Minister for Education. This was a redevelopment that was considerably pushed forward by a very unfortunate circumstance. When I was at the beginning of year 9, the western campus of Unley High School was largely comprised of a huge number of transportable buildings. Somebody came and set fire to the whole campus and it was pretty much all destroyed during that arson attack.

I am sure there was some delight by some kids at having a day off school the next day; however, it was a pretty shocking event to be at school and have your school burn down while you were there. There was then a process whereby there was a lot of emergency work to try to find some creative ways of making sure that our education could continue. The George Cresswell Hall was split up into a whole range of classrooms, a whole range of PE areas were split up, etc. But they did make sure that they worked out some ways for us to continue our education.

The education department brought in a whole lot of new transportables, but then the new middle campus was built. Certainly, in my memory, it still feels very new; however, this is the 20th year since my graduation from Unley High School. I am sure that in those 20 years, compared to my memory of it as a brand-spanking new building, it has probably degraded somewhat over that time. There was then a new performing arts centre built. There was also a new gymnasium built, in conjunction with 'Life. Be In It' at the time.

Despite the western campus being burnt down at the time, a large percentage of the school was in the quadrangle style of construction with three-storey buildings, which people will be familiar with from many, many high schools across the state. In my own electorate, every time I visit the Marcellin campus of Cardijn College, which is one of the old campuses of Christies Beach, it feels like I am back at Unley High School because it is exactly the same design.

Clearly, in the sixties, when these buildings were built, there was one government architect and one set of designs and they were rolled out. It does sound a bit silly, but it probably was actually quite efficient, in that you could build a whole lot of these buildings for much the same purposes. It does feel strikingly odd whenever I go to Marcellin college that I feel like I am back at Unley High School.

Obviously, there is a need for redevelopment at this school, as there is at so many schools across the state. That is why I was so proud that our previous Labor government, with the member for Port Adelaide, our deputy leader, as the former minister for education, made such a strong commitment to the need for upgrades at schools across the state, and Unley High School was one of those schools to receive an upgrade.

Obviously, now the government have increased that due to their year 7 commitment, but obviously we made the commitment that there needed to be an investment in education facilities across the state because all kids should get the opportunity for a great education at public schools across the state. Certainly, I believe I did get a great education at Unley High School. You have to acknowledge that a school like Unley is certainly in a privileged position compared to many other schools.

Just look at how many old scholars of Unley High School have ended up in parliament. Julia Gillard is by far the most famous person who was a graduate of Unley High School, but the federal member for Kingston, Amanda Rishworth, was a graduate of Unley High School; Mark Butler, the member for Hindmarsh, was a graduate of Unley High School; and former Attorney-General Michael Atkinson was a graduate of Unley High School. It is a school that has had a strong tradition of turning out Labor members of parliament in particular.

Ms Bedford: It has a lot to answer for.

Mr PICTON: That's right. I think even the Hon. Kelly Vincent, a former member of the other place, was a graduate of Unley High School as well. It is a great school with a great tradition, and I wish it all the best for its redevelopment, as I do all the schools across the state that are beneficiaries of the program that we started to redevelop schools, particularly public schools, across the state.

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:39): I acknowledge and thank the Minister for Education, the member for Unley, the member for Waite and the member for Kaurna for equally contributing. All members in this place are appreciative of the work the Minister for Education is seeing through. It is a very substantial program, a necessary program and a valuable one. There is a very valuable investment of more that $32 million in this instance being made for Unley High School's future.

It is right to say that the member for Unley has been a determined and very significant figure in bringing forward this program. I was interested to learn that his own children attended the school, and members in this place are of course familiar with his commitment to vocational and technical education. They are matters that he frequently and rightly ventilates here. I also wish to acknowledge and thank Wayne Hobbs and the governing council and principal Greg Rolton for their vision, commitment and determination. It is no easy thing working through a program of this scope and ensuring that it can come to completion. It is a significant and very valuable program of works.

I was also interested to learn of the significant political figures who, in early life, had a connection to the school: names like Butler, Atkinson, Rishworth, Vincent, Gillard and Picton. There must be a special politics program somewhere at the school that is clearly developing leaders for the future. I am sure that with this investment there will be facilities in which future leaders will also benefit from world-class education and world-class facilities. I congratulate the minister, the school community and those who have advocated so strongly—the member for Unley first amongst them, the member for Waite and, of course, the minister himself.

Motion carried.

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