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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-06-05 Daily Xml
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Public Education

Ms SAVVAS (Newland) (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. How is the Malinauskas government ensuring that South Australian families have access to quality public education?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:48): I thank the member for Newland for her excellent question and, of course, for her very strong advocacy for the schools in her electorate as well. Last week, it was my pleasure to join the Premier and the Treasurer at Henley Beach Primary School, where we announced a couple of pretty significant parts of the budget, particularly in terms of new and existing infrastructure in public education.

Of course, I think the most prominent part of the announcement that we made was a new primary school and a new preschool in the northern suburbs. Everyone in this chamber and, of course, you, Mr Speaker, know all too well that we have seen incredible population growth in those areas and I do not think we have always done a great job of keeping up in terms of making sure that we have an excellent offering in terms of public schools for the people who live there now and who are seeking to move into the homes that are being built there as well.

One of the first pieces of work that I did as Minister for Education was to get the department to do a piece of work, an analysis, on where the most growth was. It showed very clearly, and it will not be a surprise to anyone in here, that the northern suburbs was number 1—and it was a fair distance between number 1 and number 2—followed by Mount Barker.

We have already previously announced that we will be building a new primary school with a co-located preschool in Mount Barker. Previously we have also announced, the Minister for Planning and the Premier and myself, a new high school in the suburb of Eyre, which I think will be open for 2028 and will have 1,300 enrolments. At Henley Beach Primary School, we announced what will be a new primary school for 400 students and a new preschool for 60 students as well. I want to perhaps just point out that we have been quite considered in terms of the size of that primary school.

Some members of this place will remember that there has been public debate about issues around some of the unsavoury behaviour that we can sometimes see at schools coming to the fore around whether or not in the past we might have built schools that were too big. I have been quite frank and honest in my response to that, as the minister, by saying that, yes, I think in some cases we have built schools that were so large that when behaviour gets a bit unruly it becomes very hard for the staff there to get it back under control and that we should take a more considered approach when building stock in the future to make sure they are perhaps of a smaller size that is more appropriate. I would point to this announcement here, of the new primary school with 400 students in the northern suburbs, as an example that we are delivering on that commitment that I made.

The other announcement we made on that day was an additional $40 million across the next four years, $10 million each year, for some urgent school upgrades right across the state. We know in public education it's a big system. We have 900 public sites and we have almost 6,000 buildings across those 900 sites. The average age of one of those buildings now in the system I think is probably 46 years—I have been saying that for couple of years—which means that we are spending more money than we used to on upgrades for things that might break down. This extra $40 million announced in the budget is going to be put to very good use.

I can tell the house the projects that were announced as part of it. Of course, in the member for Newland's own seat, there are new heating, ventilation and cooling systems for Banksia Park R-6, but also Mitcham Girls High, East Torrens Primary, Kilkenny Primary, Hewett Primary, Flagstaff Hill R-7, Underdale High School. On Eyre Peninsula, the Karcultaby Area School's design and tech facilities, which are currently housed in a shed, will be replaced with more modern infrastructure. Although it might not be the most pleasant of topics to talk about, people in here will know there's a lot of work to do in terms of upgrading toilets that are needing a bit of TLC. We also announced at Renmark West Primary School in the seat of Chaffey, Coromandel Valley Primary in the seat of Waite and Goodwood Primary in the seat of Unley, upgrades to those schools as well.

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