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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-09 Daily Xml
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Education Department

Mr BOYER (Wright) (14:12): My question is to the Minister for Education. Will the minister publish any advice or business case he received from the chief executive of his department about the new school he is building in his own electorate, as detailed in the budget leak provided to the opposition?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:12): I thank the member—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee! The minister has the call.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —for the question. I make the point that, indeed, Infrastructure SA released a Capital Intention Statement in March. I commend to the member, if he doesn't want to read the reams of information—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —published by Infrastructure SA and available for the South Australian community, to read the work of outstanding South Australian journalist Paul Starick, who wrote about it in The Advertiser in March. There is indeed significant pressure in the eastern suburbs. There has been for some time.

Mr Boyer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: When the member for Wright was Chief of Staff to the Hon. Jennifer Rankine as education minister, they would have been aware of this because, of course, at that time they proposed to build a new school on the Magill campus of the University of South Australia. They took that as an idea to the 2014 election—

An honourable member: What happened?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Well, they won that election and then decided not to proceed with it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, Premier!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: It's quite possible that they were seeking to punish—

The Hon. S.S. Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier is called to order.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —the people of the eastern suburbs for daring to vote against Grace Portolesi in the seat of Hartley—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright will cease interjecting.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —and so they punished the people of the eastern suburbs by cancelling projects. The former Labor government, with the then education minister, the member for Port Adelaide, who has since been promoted to deputy leader of the Labor Party, then proposed to put a $30 million project at Norwood Morialta High School to combine the two campuses onto one campus and increase the size of the Magill campus.

They didn't tell anybody that half of the price they were going to spend on it was from the land sale of the Rostrevor campus. That was never made public before the election—that the whole project was not only underfunded by about $20 million but it was predicated on flogging off the land of the Rostrevor campus for presumably high-density housing. Certainly, the Treasury officers told us, when they came to power—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —that $15 million—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Colton!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —of expenditure on the Magill campus of Norwood Morialta High School was predicated on the land sale of Rostrevor that the Labor Party never told anybody about. We have been very, very transparent with—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —the people of South Australia for some time. On the advice of the education department, Treasury, in a previous budget, has agreed to not require the education department to sell that Rostrevor land in order to recover money to pay for the upgrade that is absolutely necessary at the Magill campus. We have been very clear about that for some time. We have said so in this chamber and we have said so in public materials. It has been clear from the material provided to Infrastructure SA, and indeed identified in the Infrastructure SA Capital Intentions Statement—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —that recommends doing this project, that this was indeed on the cards, that the education department was giving consideration to the future educational needs of the eastern suburbs. The truth is—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright will cease interjecting.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —that over 16 years the urban infill in the eastern suburbs had been absolutely extraordinary while Labor was in power. The member for Schubert, when he was planning minister, made some significant changes to the Campbelltown planning arrangements in relation to block sizes, and indeed that extraordinary growth and development. The Labor Party, when in power, flogged off—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —the land at the Magill Youth Training Centre that is now providing for about 400 new residents there, with children as well. There's a whole range of pressures that are going to be on schooling in the eastern suburbs, and this has been growing for some time.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The solution proposed by those opposite was not to increase capacity and not to deal with the challenges of increased student numbers in our public system—increased student numbers in the eastern suburbs created by their policies relating to housing in the eastern suburbs. Their solution was to exacerbate the problem by flogging off the land at the Rostrevor campus for more housing, more high-density developments and more urban infill in the eastern suburbs. That was Labor's approach, and now they criticise us for trying to fix it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right! The member for Wright might resume his seat for a moment.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The line of questioning and the nature of the answers are a source of excitement for both sides of the chamber so far in question time. I remind honourable members on both sides of the need to hear the question in silence. The minister, in answering the question, is entitled to be heard in silence. Before I call the member for Wright, I call to order the member for Colton and the member for Hurtle Vale. I call to order the member for Lee and the Deputy Premier, and I warn the Premier.

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