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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-18 Daily Xml
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Public Works Committee: Playford International College Redevelopment

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:39): I move:

That the 85th report of the committee for the Fifty-Fourth Parliament, entitled Playford International College Redevelopment Project, be noted.

Playford International College is located, as you will know, Mr Speaker, on Philip Highway, Elizabeth, in the City of Playford. The Department for Education has advised that the Playford International College focuses on music, sport, language and performing arts and offers vocational education and training pathways.

Playford International College was allocated funding of $3 million as part of the Department for Education's capital works program. This funding allocation was confirmed, with further funding announced in February 2019, bringing the total project funding from $3 million to $15.6 million. Playford International College requires works to provide the capacity to accommodate 1,500 students at the site and this will support expected future enrolment growth, including the transition of year 7 students to high school in 2022.

Aged infrastructure will be replaced with newer facilities. Specifically, the proposed scope of public works for the project includes construction of a new wellbeing centre, incorporating an extension upgrade of part of the grounds floor; construction of a new mathematics and numeracy centre, incorporating an additional extension and upgrade to that part of the facility; construction of a new technology centre, which will also see an extension; and an upgrade and extension to the visual arts centre comprising the first floor over the new technology centre.

There is also the extension of the existing hospitality and function centre and the redevelopment of the courtyard between the new mathematics and numeracy centre and the existing science labs. There will also be the need to construct a new link bridge. It is clear that there will be capacity to provide an outdoor learning area. These buildings will be earthquake resistant, which was of some interest to the committee. Demolition of aged relocation buildings will also take place.

The committee has taken quite an interest in not only seismology matters, which we were not particularly familiar with in relation to this or other projects, but also geological matters, including the costs associated with various clay and soil types across Adelaide. I must say that evidence has been of some use to the committee and also of great interest to me and, I am sure, to the member for West Torrens.

When complete, the project will deliver additional accommodation on the site to support the transition of year 7 students to high school and local population growth. The project will be staged and construction is expected to be complete by December 2021. The committee examined written and oral evidence in relation to this project and received assurances that the appropriate consultation in relation to the project had been undertaken.

The committee is satisfied that the proposal has been subject to the appropriate agency consultation and meets the criteria for the examination of projects as described 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 ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (11:42): I rise to speak briefly on this report from the Public Works Committee. I must say that I have not yet read this report, but I do intend to read it soon. I am going to take particular interest in the seismological information contained therein. I think I have lived within two kilometres of that school for most of my life and I do not recall an earthquake of any particular magnitude that would require such an extensive seismological report, but I look forward to reading it. I am glad these buildings are futureproofed in such a way.

I do want to thank the Public Works Committee for the report. While the former minister is in the chamber—as unparliamentary as it is to refer to that fact—I want to thank her for her interest in this particular school and, of course, in the current minister's continuation of that work. This is my old school; specifically, it is my old campus. Two schools were melded into one and that was the other campus, so I did not actually attend that site, but it was my old school and I have taken a particular interest in it. The school has been in my electorate since I was elected and I am on the governing council, so I have taken a particular interest in it.

It is fair to say that the school exists in an area of considerable disadvantage and it hosts a cohort of students who are, in various ways, subject to certain sorts of disadvantage. This has always been recognised, ever since I went to the school, but it was particularly recognised by the incoming principal, Mr Rob Knight, in 2015, and I want to pay tribute here to his work and his advocacy on behalf of the students and the community of Elizabeth.

If memory serves me correctly, he came to the school in 2015, his first year at that school, and very soon after that, after his assessment of the school and its community and what that community needed, he basically sat me down—not just me, but members of the Economic and Finance Committee as well on another occasion, and I think also the then minister—and said (and I am paraphrasing) that we were doing these students a disservice, that we would be better off closing the school, spending the money we are currently spending on the school and just farming them out to other schools.

He said that the way the school was structured and the amount of funding it was getting, and had been getting in the past, was not sufficient to give the students an adequate education and that we were doing them a disservice. He made no bones about it. Although, of course, I was aware of the disadvantage, that shocked even me. I had conversations with the then minister about it, and was pleased that in the 2015 budget there was a considerable increase in funding, both for capital works and for STEM, as well as for the program Rob Knight set out.

I am not aware of how it has been taken on in other schools, but he took a groundbreaking approach to teaching in that school, in terms of changing the way the school day was structured for various students, scrapping the way year levels were so tightly controlled into age groups and having later starting for some students recognising that teenagers operate on a slightly different timescale from some of us. There were all sorts of radical changes he has slowly been implementing since 2015 with some considerable success.

I want to pay tribute to Rob Knight and to the school council. They have done an excellent job. I lose track of some of these projects—there are so many things going on at that school—and to my shame, and because of the coronavirus, I have not been able to visit or attend a governing council meeting this year, but I want to pay tribute to them. I hope that the investment the previous government made in this school continues, and I know that Rob Knight will continue to advocate on behalf of that school community. I commend this report to the house.

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:47): I appreciate very much the member for Elizabeth's contribution and his obvious passion and commitment to the school community. I also recognise that he is a former student who is not only familiar with the school's current operations and needs but who, as a result, equally has a very good longitudinal view as to what has occurred at the site over time.

I also amplify and emphasise the comments that the member for Elizabeth has made to recognise the contribution of Rob Knight to the school, his commitment, knowledge and passion for education, his belief in the value of education and its ability to transform lives and lift horizons. I also recognise the school council and their belief in the school and its students.

As I earlier mentioned, as the child of two schoolteachers who taught in a variety of schools over many years I, too, fundamentally believe in the value of education and educational investment. I am very pleased that I am able to recommend the scope of the proposed public works to the parliament.

Motion carried.

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