Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-26 Daily Xml

Contents

SUPER SCHOOLS

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:10): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Leader of the Government, representing the Treasurer, a question about super schools.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: On 6 February this year, the Treasurer issued a media release declaring that the government would push ahead with its six super schools. On Tuesday, he answered a question from his own side on the subject in the other place without mentioning when the new schools will open for students.

Last week, the News Review Messenger carried an article on its front page, entitled 'Schools in dark on new building', which outlined the anxiety of locals as to the proposed new super schools. Mr Paul Rayner, principal of Smith Creek Primary, one of the schools closing at the end of 2009, was quoted in the article as saying that there was:

...some feeling that our new schools won't be open in time...No-one has put a date on it...The people from the Education Department, when we met with them, are locked into saying the schools will open next year but whether it's day one of the school year...we don't know.

Is the Treasurer prepared to guarantee the communities of the seven northern suburbs schools closing to make way for the new super schools at Smithfield Plains and Munno Para West so that these super schools will be delivered on time, on budget, and will open for the start of the 2010 school year?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (15:11): I will have to get that information from either the Treasurer or the Minister for Education. Obviously, they have the detail in relation to those matters, and I am happy to refer it on.