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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-17 Daily Xml
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Parliamentary Committees

Public Works Committee: Adelaide Botanic High School Expansion

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:02): I move:

That the ninth report of the committee, entitled Adelaide Botanic High School Expansion, be noted.

The public works submission from the Department for Education proposes a $98 million expansion of Adelaide Botanic High School. The expansion site is in the Adelaide Parklands among our city's peak public and cultural destinations. The River Torrens can be found to the north-west, the universities of Adelaide and South Australia to the west and south, the Adelaide Botanic Garden to the east, and Adelaide Zoo to the north.

The central business district and inner north areas, which neighbour this scenic landscape, are experiencing school enrolment pressures. Department projections indicate these pressures are set to continue, with a likely increase in school-age cohorts over the next 30 years. Adelaide Botanic High has 1,119 students enrolled this year, with a capacity of 1,250, indicating that the school is currently unable to accommodate any significant increase in demand.

The department monitors and projects school capacity by utilising current enrolment demand, housing growth, and demographic changes to inform the design and implementation of capacity management strategies. These strategies are developed with schools and local education teams to ensure the best outcome for local families. The strategies often include the provision of capacity management plans, school zones, and additional accommodation. The current shortfall between supply and demand at Adelaide Botanic High School is driven by broad factors, including population growth and increasing birth rates, as well as more local factors such as urban infill.

The public works project proposes the construction of a new building at Adelaide Botanic High to accommodate a 700-student enrolment increase, creating a total capacity of 1,950. The refurbishment of the school's existing basement is also planned, allowing the expansion of the bike store and associated end-of-trip amenities. The demolition of localised sections of the existing school's southern facade is also scheduled to allow connection to the expansion building.

The key aims of this project are to address the current and future demand in the CBD and inner north areas, to lead in the delivery of contemporary education and to make a significant and positive contribution to families in the CBD and inner north.

A key feature and strength of the original school's design was the internal learning spaces. A range of general and specialist learning areas were highlighted and celebrated through various articulations in the facade, providing visual engagement between the school's curriculum and its urban surroundings. The proposed design retains this key feature.

With a strong focus on providing learning pathways to industry, such as the Lot Fourteen innovation precinct, the school expansion will place learning and innovation on display through a series of deliberate gestures physically and visually connecting the school to the surrounding tertiary precincts. The design will make use of the strong historical access emanating from the Barr Smith Library, to encourage links to and from the university, and from the central promenade to Lot Fourteen. It will produce a fenceless environment where the school boundary is seamlessly blended into the Parklands setting.

The vision is to provide an integrated, multidisciplinary learning environment to engage every student and improve education outcomes. Student engagement is expected to be enhanced by offering creative, flexible learning spaces. The expansion building will support modern learning methodologies and promote collaborative teaching practices.

Architecturally, the design supports government sustainability initiatives to conserve water and energy. Outdoor learning and social spaces will also be created to integrate the building with the natural environment. A specialist environmental consultant has been appointed to provide technical advice relating to a range of ecologically sustainable development strategies. Much of this detail will be completed during the upcoming design development and contract documentation phases. Ongoing discussions and workshops with design team members and interrogation of design standards will reveal various opportunities.

In regard to sustainability, the anticipated outcomes include compliance with National Construction Code 2019 section J, with aspirations to better it by 10 per cent, and compliance with the Department for Infrastructure and Transport's vision for ecologically sustainable development, which encourages a holistic life-cycle approach to building design, construction and maintenance. In addition, a construction and demolition waste management plan will be required to minimise material to landfill and maximise re-use and recycling of materials.

Commissioning and testing of all services, including HVAC, lighting and solar, will be required prior to occupation to ensure the intended design has been implemented in the most efficient and effective manner. The builder's results will be verified by the department. Construction is scheduled to commence in November 2022, with completion in January 2024. Students and staff will remain at the school site for the duration of the works, with any interruptions to school operations minimised.

The committee has examined written and oral evidence in relation to the expansion of Adelaide Botanic High School. Witnesses who appeared before the committee were the member for Adelaide; Mr Bill Glasgow, Executive Director, Infrastructure, Department for Education; Mr Simon Morony, Executive Director Across Government Services, Department for Infrastructure and Transport; and Mr Adam Hannon from Cox Architecture. I thank the witnesses for their time in presenting the project to the committee.

Based upon 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 proposed public works.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (11:07): I am very pleased to see this report coming out of the Public Works Committee for the expansion of Adelaide Botanic High School. This is a tremendously important body of work. It is a tremendously important piece of educational infrastructure both for residents living in the Adelaide High School area and in the seat of Adelaide certainly—I see the member for Adelaide made a contribution towards the Public Works Committee, as is very suitable—and, indeed, more than that, for the whole of the public education system.

The Adelaide Botanic High School shared zone is very much the central part of the public education system and there are very full schools surrounding the Adelaide High School area. So, when the Adelaide shared zone schools become full, that has significant and dramatic impacts upon the whole of the public education system, significant impacts for those other shared areas. More than that, in Adelaide High School and Adelaide Botanic High School we have particular lighthouse educational opportunities available within the public education system for some particular areas of study.

The language program at Adelaide High School—and this is relevant as a result of the need for expanded capacity of both—takes 60 students each year, and those students are required to sign up to do two languages and to pursue language studies right through to year 12. Without those 60 students a year being in that special entry program at Adelaide High School, the public education system would actually have far too few—it has fewer students than we would like doing language to year 12, but this program is a significant component of the language studies that are offered.

For students who have a disposition towards the study of languages and an opportunity to pursue that in a fashion that is nothing short of excellence, that opportunity within the public education system is vital for our state, for our education system and for opportunities, especially for those students who have those skills who might be able to achieve their best if they were studying at a school that had that program to year 12 in the private system but whose parents cannot necessarily afford those fees. Having that option in the public system is critical.

I do not know if all members are aware of this, but there are actually very few public schools that do have a language program strong up to year 12. The introduction of the International Baccalaureate at Roma Mitchell, Aberfoyle Park, Unley High School and Norwood International High School has ensured that there are some language programs going through to year 12, but the SACE year 12 language study numbers are low and have been low for a significant number of years. Without those year 12 programs being available, it is very difficult to encourage students in years 9 and 10 to choose language study in year 10 and then year 11 when it becomes optional because there is not that critical mass of students.

That is what Adelaide High provides to the system, along with a number of other things. That is irreplaceable. Were the shared high school zones in the city to be so full with students living within the zone that those special entry programs were forced to close or stop offering that entry, it would more than damage the things that make Adelaide High and Adelaide Botanic great—those special entry programs, those lighthouse students—and it would indeed have a disastrous effect on the study of languages in the public education system in South Australia. It is that important.

There is also a sports special entry program in Adelaide High School: rowing and cricket are offered there, and having that option within the public education system is important. And, indeed, there is the health sciences program at Adelaide Botanic, which is a smaller program, certainly, than the languages program at Adelaide High School but nevertheless important.

These schools are popular schools. Indeed, when Adelaide Botanic High School was completed and students enrolled in 2019, it was an extraordinarily happy time for the community. It meant that students were able to come into the school who would otherwise have been on waiting lists. The suburb of Prospect, for example, was added to the zone in 2015, and that meant that students were coming into town for public education rather than going north, which was their previous option.

It comes with complexity. I do not want to go into that now—there are other opportunities, and I am sure we will look at those in the future—but I do want to say that what this build will create is the capacity for students living within the Adelaide High School zone and the Adelaide Botanic High School shared zone to be assured a place in their local public school. This is not just through the year 6/7 transition process, but it gives students who move into the zone at other year levels a much greater chance that they will be able to enter the school, which is great news.

The advice that I was given when I was Minister for Education was that the build would provide that capacity, certainly throughout the rest of the decade. The Labor Party had an election commitment to increase the size of the zone, and they are delivering on that, as they should. It was an election commitment. I would only say that it will make earlier the requirement to look at further expansion of the infrastructure, assuming that the minister would not like, as I am sure he would not like, to close those special entry programs, then it brings forward the time when further infrastructure will be needed. We will be paying close attention to that.

We do, however, have a couple of years, obviously, with the provision of 700 extra spaces, when we will certainly have room for those students for the next couple of years. And as the department does that planning, I am sure they will take into account the significant capacity challenges and keep a close eye on it.

I want to commend all the public servants who have been involved in the preparation of this material. This obviously was a process that took some time. Infrastructure SA had a close look at it. We were conscious of the need for improved infrastructure for some time, and many different options were looked at.

Some people wrote to me, suggesting that there should be a third city high school. Some people, who I will not name, suggested that we needed to adjust those other programs or zones. That was something, of course, that was of absolutely no interest to me, to constrict any opportunity for any student, as I have outlined already. There are, indeed, a range of options, but certainly Infrastructure SA was very supportive of the proposal that was ultimately put forward by the education department and that we see here today.

I was very pleased as the former minister to secure the support of the former cabinet for the funding to do not just this project but, of course, also the further expansion of Roma Mitchell Secondary College, which is an important part of the mix because it is not just within the CBD zones that there is increasing capacity but also within the inner north. Roma Mitchell is a very popular school, it is a growing school, and it is a school that is developing an extremely positive academic reputation as well.

Their International Baccalaureate program, they achieved international accreditation for that a year ahead of schedule, in two years rather than the three that it usually takes, and so they have students who are this year graduating year 12 with their IB a year ahead of some of the other schools that have taken it on. That is a sign of the popularity of Roma Mitchell. I look forward to that progressing through the Public Works Committee in due course. It was part of the same body of work as this one.

I want to thank and acknowledge Julieann Riedstra, the former chief operating officer of the education department, who did an awful lot of precursor work in this area, and Ben Temperly, the current—and former, but now again current—chief operating officer, who personally was heavily invested in this work and did an excellent job. Bill Glasgow, as I identified before, is the current head of infrastructure in the education department. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience. Prior to his involvement in education he worked on some very, very significant projects internationally, and he now brings that expertise to South Australia. It helps ensure that we have confidence in this build.

I also want to acknowledge a former school principal who developed postgraduate expertise in this area and whose work informed the original Adelaide Botanic High School build—and also the underpinning principles and educational pedagogy of all of the other new high schools, new R to 12 schools that we built over the last five or six years—and that is Deb O'Riley. She has recently retired from the education department; she is still available for work, as I understand, judging by her LinkedIn profile. She was an absolute powerhouse in the education department.

The design theories behind having these flexible learning spaces whereby you can actually move between explicit instruction and project-based opportunities for high school students include; flexible areas where students can engage effectively with their learning, depending on what is being offered, and purpose-built environments to offer these specialist subjects and other subjects—Deb was an absolute star.

Cox Architecture, I understand, are involved in the new build, as they were in the original one. They did an outstanding job there, so I commend that team. I am running out of time, so I cannot thank anyone else, but I want to commend the project. I am pleased to hear that the Adelaide City Council matters seem to have been resolved and I look forward, therefore, to this project proceeding apace, being ready for the beginning of the 2024 school year.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (11:17): It is not without a sense of relief that I rise to speak on this Public Works Committee report. I will begin by endorsing pretty much everything the shadow minister, the member for Morialta, has said. It was only right that he took the opportunity to acknowledge the work of so many people who have been integral in seeing this very significant process now progress to the point that it is at. Of course, it has not been without some challenges, but I thought the shadow minister spoke very well about the importance of this expansion, this 700-place expansion.

Obviously, Adelaide Botanic High School has been an incredible success. The growing demand very soon after the school opened, I think, is a ringing endorsement of how popular it has been. It is certainly a different model to what we have elsewhere, not only in the public system but probably in the education system more broadly here in South Australia. I think the way that it has been adopted by parents in the shared zone is a ringing endorsement of how successful that model has been, and that there is demand elsewhere for an option like the one that Adelaide Botanic High School provides in the shared CBD zone.

I want to use my time to acknowledge some people and I want to begin by acknowledging the advocacy of the members for Badcoe and West Torrens particularly, who I was very pleased to join at Adelaide High School a couple of weeks ago. I must say, it is very rare, Mr Speaker, as I am sure you will agree, to see the 'lion of the Labor Party'—I hope I can call him that in here—get emotional.

He was somewhat emotional that day about the fact that we were on the way to delivering our commitment to having suburbs and part suburbs in his seat and in the seat of the member for Badcoe reinstated to the shared CBD zone. I know that the member for West Torrens feels that acutely, being an old scholar of Adelaide High School, and he has been a champion for many years making sure that the residents he represents and the young people, as he was some time ago, seeking a fantastic public education get the opportunity to do that at Adelaide High School and now will again get that opportunity from 2024 to choose between two fantastic public schools in the shared CBD zone.

I want to acknowledge the unrelenting advocacy provided by both members, which has really paid off. I am both proud and relieved that we have been able to come to an agreement now with Adelaide City Council. The most recent update I can give the house today is that the construction licence has now been granted, which is the key piece of documentation the department needs, which will mean that shovels should be in the ground very soon, which is wonderful.

I said that it was not without its challenges, and we were sailing pretty close to the wind for a while there. I want to reiterate what the member for Morialta said in terms of thanking those people who did the heavy lifting in terms of negotiations with the council to get it to the point that it is now at. You do not get to choose the timing of things sometimes and the fact that those negotiations were running concurrently with an election did not help the situation.

The member for Morialta was right in acknowledging the work over the best part of a year now from people like Ben Temperly and Julieann Riedstra, who has retired now but, knowing Julieann, she is quite possibly listening to this session at home, as she is known to do. I acknowledge Bill Glasgow, his team, and Helen Doyle. An enormous amount of work and an enormous amount of negotiation went on behind the scenes around the land swap and making sure that council were ultimately in a position where they were comfortable with what we were putting on the table and working, of course, to a very tight time line because we had committed to having those suburbs and part suburbs I mentioned before reinstated for the start of the 2024 school year, which is when we can now say we will have those extra 700 places available in the system.

I also want to touch upon the fantastic work of Cox Architecture and Lendlease, who will be the architects and builders for the expansion at Adelaide Botanic High School. As I understand it, they were the architects and builders for the original build at Adelaide Botanic High School. For those in this place who have not had a chance to have a look at Adelaide Botanic High School, I would highly recommend it. It is incredible. I was blown away when I went in there.

It is obviously a very grand and impressive looking building from the outside, but the inside is something else and a lot of the credit for that must go to Cox Architecture and Lendlease. I am really excited that they are going to be involved in the expansion as well because I know that means we are going to get an incredibly high standard of build once again. It is going to be something that fits in beautifully with the original build. The amenities are going to be fantastic.

The designs that I was pleased to present, along with the member for Badcoe, show that there is going to be a pretty spectacular kind of roof level exercise area, which is something very rare in the South Australian experience. I will be fascinated to see that as well. I want to acknowledge the work of Cox Architecture and Lendlease in having designed and built the original building. The amenity of the inside is in no small way one of the reasons that the school has been so incredibly popular.

I am not going to say too much more other than to say that now, of course, the physical work begins in terms of getting shovels in the ground, making sure that we meet our deadlines to have these 700 extra places available in the shared CBD zone at Adelaide Botanic High School for the start of the 2024 school year.

Pleasingly, those residents of the electorates of the member for Badcoe and the member for West Torrens who will be welcomed back into the shared zone will next year be able to go through the expression of interest and enrolment process. I know that will make it real for them and that they will see that it is all happening. It will help them do that planning as well in terms of giving the family, and more importantly the young person who is going to high school, that certainty about where they will be for that big transition period, and it is a really big transition period.

There are not many things you get to do that are more exciting than the planning, building and delivery of a new school. In particular, with this project I am incredibly pleased that the Labor Party gets to deliver on one of its key election commitments here, which is all about fairness. I know we bandy that word around in here all the time, but we made a clear judgement call.

The expansion was an election commitment from both parties in here, which is a really good thing. We looked at it long and hard and decided that, if we were going to spend what I think is not far off $98 million of public funds to expand a public school, it is only right and fair that we use those funds, that opportunity and that extra capacity we are building to welcome those suburbs back into what was once the shared CBD zone. It is fantastic that we are now on the way to delivering that.

Again, just to reiterate my earlier comments, I thank all those public servants who have made this a reality and I also congratulate again the members for Badcoe and West Torrens on being the champions of this.

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (11:26): I also want to reiterate many of the comments made by the education minister on this important project. It is a wonderful legacy that former Labor governments have given our community in building Adelaide Botanic High and first committing to the school. I am a proud public school student, and I was also a SchoolCard kid and first in the family to go to uni. It is actually what inspired me to study journalism and go on to become the education journalist, education reporter and editor at The Advertiser newspaper.

The fact of the matter is that education is the great equaliser. It does not matter how many parents you have, what they earn or the postcode that you are born into, to be given a great public education really is the greatest gift that we can give a young person. So to expand Botanic, to allow an additional 700 students to access this state-of-the-art incredible school, is something that I am so incredibly proud of.

I remember the then shadow education minister, the member for Wright, and I attending and having a tour of Botanic High, and I was just so incredibly proud to be part of a party that invests in infrastructure and educational facilities like this. As the member for Adelaide, I am now proudly on the governing council of Adelaide Botanic High. Earlier this year, the governing council sat down with Cox Architecture and talked about the expansion of the school, the wonderful facilities and how the school is really designed to encourage our kids to work together, work with their teachers, and also go off and have those quiet learning spaces in which to do their work. It was a far cry from the classrooms that we were all used to.

At my own high school, Naracoorte High, we still had a few blackboards and the occasional whiteboard, but at Adelaide Botanic High almost every classroom has things like 3D printers. In their food technology area, they even had a food 3D printer. It was absolutely incredible. I am very excited that one day my own two children, Audrey and Ned, will have the opportunity of going to either Adelaide High or Adelaide Botanic High.

On the expansion, I want to make the point that to invest in a high school like this in the Parklands, where students in my community will be able to go to a first-class school in a parkland setting close to museums and universities and Lot Fourteen, says that we believe in them, that we value them and that when those children and those students walk into that school they know we that want the very best for them and that we want them to fulfil their greatest potential.

To all the families in my community, I want to say that I am so incredibly excited the Malinauskas Labor government will be delivering this project and that we will be expanding Botanic High so that your children have the opportunity of an incredible education. I look forward to welcoming those new students to Adelaide Botanic High in 2024.

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (11:30): I welcome this report and thank the committee for its hard work because this is yet another step along the way to what is quite a momentous achievement and something my community is just so incredibly grateful for and also fought so incredibly hard for. This report is another step along the path to delivering the upgraded Adelaide Botanic High School, which is exciting in itself, but of course it is also a step along the way to returning suburbs in my area to the city high school zone, that shared zone.

As members may be aware, in February 2019 the news filtered through that the previous government had decided to axe nine suburbs from the western suburbs and the southern suburbs, including my electorate and those in West Torrens, from the shared city high school zone. That came as a crushing blow, a huge surprise and quite a shock to people in my area and also the member for West Torrens' area.

The reason for that was that both parties had committed to delivering this expanded shared high school zone for several years. In fact, if you look back, there had been commitments even seven years prior to that indicating that this would be a policy and, of course, a policy of both governments going forward. It was not even really an issue at the 2018 election, though it was something that people raised with me because they were really looking forward to it and thought that they would get their suburb included into that city school zone no matter which party got in because that was what was promised.

Of course, not even a year into that new government, that promise was completely and utterly shattered. Not only was it an incredibly serious broken promise but also there was no forewarning whatsoever. There was no consultation, there was no heads-up to the community, there was no conversation with the schools or anyone in our area whatsoever. It was done by press release, and I and everyone else found out one day in February. It was a massive shock to people in my area. It was a shock for many reasons, not only because people had invested a lot of time and energy in the prospect of going to these shared high school zone schools but also because a lot of people had invested a lot of their money in it.

Obviously, families have to make decisions about how they are going to spend their limited income, and lots of them had made decisions about where they wanted to bring up their families and had taken school zones into consideration. I do not think anyone can be blamed or criticised for that. It is a natural part of managing one's family, that they think about where they want their kids to go and what different schools may offer and what might suit their child or children.

There were some real-world consequences. I have to say that, although I am incredibly proud that our side fought for the return of the school zone and we are now delivering that, there are some people in my community who have been affected and who have suffered those consequences; we cannot change that for them, the consequences they have suffered because of the decisions they made for their family based on a commitment that was never delivered by the other side.

There is anger in my community about the failure to deliver this commitment, but there is not a lot I can do about the decisions of the former government. But what we can do is stick to the commitments that we on the side of the house made. We made a very solemn promise to people in my community. We stood beside them and fought for the school zone to come back, and now this is an opportunity for us to come good on what we said to people that we would do, and that is to restore their school zone. Why? Because it is the fair thing to do.

They had an expectation of what would happen. That was dashed, but we think that decision was unfair. We are a party that is about fairness, we are a party that is about sticking to your commitments and we are also a party that is about delivering on your election promises, so that is exactly what we are doing. That is why I am so excited to see yet another brick in that road towards delivering the school zone back to the communities that had an expectation for so long that their children would be able to enrol at either Adelaide High School or Adelaide Botanic High School.

I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who fought so hard. There were people who, quite frankly, did not vote Labor. There were people who had never been involved in any sort of protest action whatsoever. There were grandmas, there were little kids, there were people who knew someone who was affected by this decision and got on board and fought hard. It was the community that got out there and organised petitions, organised rallies and organised community barbecues to get people on board with what they were trying to achieve—that is, a fair result, fairness and delivering back the school zone they had expected to be able to utilise. I want to thank all those people.

There were mums and dads who were working hard during the day and then giving up their time in the evening to get together at each other's houses to plan out events, to plan out pressure they could put onto the government and also onto the then opposition and to get together and make banners in their spare time into the wee hours. They made salads for community barbecues to get people to come along and participate in this protest action, and they were up late with their kids drawing on giant bits of cardboard to try to make the message clear that they would not stand for this unfair decision to take their school zone away from them.

I also want to thank my colleagues who made this happen: the then shadow education minister, Susan Close; the now education minister, Blair Boyer; my absolutely hardworking and hard fighting colleague in the seat of West Torrens, Tom Koutsantonis; and, of course, Peter Malinauskas. Those powers combined led to this decision.

There was a lot of work that went into how this was going to be achieved and how we were going to deliver for people in these areas who had been so badly affected by the previous government's decision. It was not reached lightly and it was not reached quickly. This was a process over many years of consideration about how this would be achieved, and I am so glad that all those tough discussions were had and that we have now reached a position where we know we can deliver on this election commitment and the pledge we made to our communities.

What this means is that there will be 700 new places at Adelaide Botanic High School. If you have not visited Adelaide Botanic, please go and check it out. It is next level. It is an absolutely amazing educational facility and one that the students there absolutely relish. They realise how fortunate they are to be educated in such an amazing facility with incredible teaching staff.

The addition of those 700 new places is what is allowing people in those nine booted out suburbs to be able to now once again be back in the shared city high school zone. Of course, that includes suburbs in my area like Marleston, Glandore, Black Forest, Kurralta Park and also part of Clarence Park, which is now part of Elder. I am so incredibly excited and so is my community about the expansion that is happening to the school that will enable them to get the fairness they have wanted for so long.

I have to say that when I was doorknocking at the most recent election this was the number one issue that was raised with me in those affected suburbs. I would knock on a door in Marleston and the first thing I would be asked is, 'Are you going to deliver on this election commitment? Is Labor going to give us back the school zone that we always thought we were entitled to?' Now I can say to those people, 'Look at this. We're doing it. We're actually delivering on those promises that we made.' We are so grateful that those people have placed their faith in us, voted for us, so that we are in a position now to deliver on that commitment, which those opposite were not prepared to do whatsoever.

I am looking forward to communicating with my community over the next six or eight months as we near the time when students can enrol, in mid next year, for the 2024 school year to go to either Adelaide High or Adelaide Botanic High School. We will be rolling out information and talking with people in my community directly about the transition arrangements that we will have in place. We recognise that there has been quite a lot of disruption caused in these intervening years, and we are keen to address that.

We realise that there are people in different situations who may already, for example, have a child enrolled in a different school now, people who have questions about where siblings will go and how they can manage this within their own families. I am aware of those considerations and we will be having those discussions with people one on one so that we can find the best solutions for their family, given the complications that have been caused by this decision by the previous government. I am incredibly excited. I cannot wait to be there on the day in 2024, that first day at school, where students in my area will again be able to enrol in and attend one of the city high schools.

I would also like to spend a moment to acknowledge the work the Labor government has done and is continuing to do at other schools in my area. It is my dream that people in Badcoe will have confidence in all our public schools and the high quality of education that we are providing in our public schools, particularly at Plympton International College. Previously, we invested $4 million in a new STEM facility, and it is absolutely outstanding.

We have also recently cut the ribbon on the new drama and arts facility, which was several million dollars as well, funded under the previous Labor government. At the most recent election, I promised $3 million for a new kiss-and-drop facility to address the increasing numbers of students who are now attending that school, and the parking and traffic that goes with that. I have had discussions about that with the local community and I look forward to cutting the ribbon on that one as well.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (11:41): The decision by the previous government to take the western suburbs out of the school zones for Adelaide Botanic and Adelaide High said to me that this former government were nothing but undergraduate politicians who thought it would be funny to dislocate people in the electorates of Badcoe or West Torrens because they could. It was an ultimate abuse of power.

For me, it said that the Premier was not fit to govern and had to be removed, that his judgement about the way he conducted himself with local communities in and around South Australia lacked the leadership that was required of anyone to hold the office of Premier. It was cruel, it was mean, it was mean-spirited and it was intended to hurt. It was designed to hurt and it was targeted at the western suburbs, the inner southern and western suburbs, and it was done deliberately. Not a single Liberal MP had a boundary change. There was no sharing of the pain. It was all put on the western suburbs and, quite frankly, that just gave us more fire in the belly to fight. That just inspired us to fight even harder.

Think of what it is to be a western suburbs family planning on your children's future, planning on where you are going to send your children to school, and having that ripped away from you simply because of a change of government. I also point out that in the electorate of West Torrens nearly 40 per cent of people's first or second preference goes to the Liberal Party. What does that say to all of them? These families were trying to plan for their children's future, where to send their children, and those options were ripped away from them by a cruel government who did not care about the long-term interests of their own citizens—their own citizens.

I went to Adelaide High School. Adelaide High School has always been a western suburbs school. The idea that somehow a school located on West Terrace, metres from the western suburbs, is not a western suburbs school is ridiculous. The politicising of these boundaries by the previous government I think speaks of the character of the former Premier, who he was and the way he conducted himself. But the people of South Australia were able to see through that, especially the people of the western suburbs.

Our education minister has done a magnificent job of being able to chart a course that is fair and equitable, but the people I am worried about are all those boys and girls who missed out on going to Adelaide Botanic and Adelaide High over the proceeding six years from when this decision was taken. Basically, an entire cohort was denied access to the state's first public school, their closest public school. It was ripped away from them with no care, no apology—nothing.

To this date, the largest public rally in the last six years against a previous government, against any government, was the march of mums and dads and boys and girls up Glover Avenue to Adelaide High School from Thebarton Theatre. Still to this day, it remains the largest protest against the previous government. It was people power at its best. It demonstrated the very best of what South Australia is and exposed the very worst of who the Liberal Party are: cruel, cruel and mean, mean-spirited.

They could have been generous. There were other options that government could have taken to keep those children enrolled. They chose not to, and I can just imagine the laughter in the cabinet room when that decision was being made and that stamp went down on that submission by the then Premier about how good this would be and how it would impact the western suburbs.

But justice has a way of coming to light, and justice has been done. Justice was done on 19 March, then justice again was fulfilled in the first budget, and since the agreement to allow the expansion of Adelaide Botanic—which was skilfully negotiated by the Minister for Education, to whom I am eternally grateful in this place—the people of the western suburbs now have the choice of three great schools: Adelaide Botanic, Adelaide High and Underdale High School, three great public institutions.

Families have choices again, which is great. It is great for the western suburbs, and it is great for the school communities of Adelaide High School and Adelaide Botanic that they are actually now representative of the areas in which the schools are located. It is good to have a mix of kids at a school. It is good to have people from affluent families, people from working-class families and people from migrant families. That is who Australia is: a good mix, not this exclusivity they have tried to build around Adelaide High School and Adelaide Botanic.

It is about making sure we keep our country egalitarian, making sure our children are being raised in a manner that allows them to see the entire spectrum of Australian life and Australian families, rather than being segregated simply because of where they grow up, where they live or who their parents vote for, which is even worse. Make no mistake: this was all about who their parents voted for and where their parents decided to live.

The impact educationally is one aspect to remember, but what about the impact financially? The moment this decision happened, the moment the marches happened and the moment the protests happened, immediately overnight on realestate.com every real estate agent in the state was advertising every home that was in the Adelaide High School zone as having a higher value than homes outside the Adelaide Botanic/Adelaide High zone. What did that tell people who are in Mile End, Torrensville and Badcoe about whether or not they had value to this former government? What did it say to them?

The class wars: you might remember the case of a dentist over the former land tax changes. The Liberal Party then commented on the aspirations of that gentleman and the car he was purchasing and said, 'How dare people who are accumulating wealth criticise us about land tax.' What is wrong with aspiration? What is wrong with hoping your home grows in value? What is wrong with hoping your children go to a good school? What is wrong with that aspiration? Why would you inflict class warfare in the 21st century on South Australian families?

They paid the price for that. Let's hope they learn from it. I do not think they will. As the results of the most recent election show, they have not learned from it and they are not learning from it. Thankfully, now they have a government that is supporting aspiration, that does want to give children and families choice and that does want to see them have access to choices about the schooling that is right for them, close to public transport routes and being able to walk to school. We are continually spending billions and billions of dollars on infrastructure to meet morning and afternoon peaks—billions. It is $7 billion over the next four years alone on road infrastructure, excluding the north-south corridor, because children are not catching buses, not riding their bikes and not walking to school.

Why would you take kids who can walk to a school out of that zone? It makes no sense whatsoever. But again that is what the Liberal Party did. We want to encourage decarbonisation and we want to encourage kids to walk to school—healthy outcomes. We want to encourage kids to ride to school—good connectivity. We want to see children go to school with kids who grow up in their area, kids in their neighbourhood, playing on weekends and having a safe, good, healthy upbringing in a good public school—as a community, not dividing communities by some arbitrary line.

They cut Mile End in half. So one part of Mile End can go to Adelaide High and the other part of Mile End cannot go to Adelaide High. They all went to the same primary school—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: They are neighbours. Why would you do that? What is the rationale behind that, other than cruelty?

Adelaide High School changed my life. It put me on a path that has allowed me to achieve amazing things in my life that my parents as migrants would never have imagined. I hope that this decision by this government, and the work done by this education minister, will see young kids, who never imagined what they could become or do, have access to some of the best public schools in the state. They can go on and do amazing things with their lives, without the prejudice and class warfare imposed on them by those small, little minds of the Liberal Party.

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:51): I want to thank members for their contributions to this debate. I want to thank the member for Morialta for his contribution; it is good to see that projects of this type receive bipartisan support. I would also like to thank the Minister for Education for his contribution; I know he has been a passionate supporter of this particular project. Whilst I am of course not a resident of the areas that have had zones changed, I do know people who live in those areas, and I can tell you that they are most supportive of the policy and also of the great work that the Minister for Education has done to bring about this expansion of Adelaide Botanic High School.

I would like to thank the member for Adelaide for her contribution—I think the house certainly benefited from understanding where she has come from in this debate on this particular project—and also the big support that she and her community have for the project. I thank the member for Badcoe for letting us know some of the historical context of how this particular project will assist her residents in being able to get better access to the schools in the Adelaide CBD.

I need to mention, of course, the contribution of the Minister for Infrastructure. As all members of this house would be aware, he is a very proud alumnus of Adelaide High School. In my personal opinion, I think he does his school proud. You can always tell the passion when he talks about his time at Adelaide High School. I also know that many of his constituents are very supportive of the passionate way in which he has engaged in the debate on the school zones issue and of the big support that he has for this particular project. With those brief remarks, I again support the motion.

Motion carried.

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