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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-10-20 Daily Xml
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Lady George Kindergarten

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley) (14:28): My question is to the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. Can the minister explain why the director of The Lady George kindy in Highgate, in my electorate of Unley, was not reappointed? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: Upon coming to the end of his current term, the director of the kindergarten reapplied for his position but was unsuccessful. The parent representative on the selection panel has presented very real concerns about the process, but these have been dismissed by the department. The local community is very upset.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:29): I thank the member for Unley for his question, and I acknowledge the presence in the chamber today of community members and parents from The Lady George Kindergarten. This is certainly an issue I am aware of, and I am very much aware of how The Lady George Kindergarten community felt about the appointment or, in this case, the lack of appointment to which the member for Unley just referred in his question.

When it was brought to my attention, I did what I am sure people in this place would expect the Minister for Education to do. I spoke to the education department. Of course, as minister, I am not responsible for individual appointments of directors or principals to kindergartens or primary schools and high schools. This is something I have never said in this place before, but I think even the member for Unley would agree with me that we would not want a situation where politicians were responsible for those kinds of appointments, but of course I took the complaint very seriously.

I asked for an explanation from the education department about what the process was in terms of appointing a director at Lady George Kindergarten. I was told at first blush that the process that was undertaken was the appropriate one. It followed a merit selection process, which is the process that is undertaken in all these appointments. I said that obviously we have a very upset community here who have a very, very high regard for the person the member for Unley referenced and they believe that there was something awry in that appointment process that should be looked at.

That resulted in a review of that process, which the department undertook. I can inform the house now that the review—which was conducted, of course, independently of me as the minister—found that in this case all appropriate processes had been followed and that the appointment of the new director was consistent with the principles of a merit selection process. I understand that has been communicated to a member of the original appointment panel, who I believe was the person who made the formal complaint to me. The findings of that review have now been communicated by Professor Martin Westwell, the chief executive of the department, to that member of the panel.

I understand that that is not the outcome that community members were looking for but, as I said before, it is very important that I think politicians remain independent and at arm's length from appointment processes like this. I don't propose as minister to start involving myself individually in these cases. The best that I can do, and the most reassurance that I can offer communities like the Lady George, is to ask for the process to be thoroughly reviewed and then communicate that, and that is what has been done in this case.

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