EDUCATION CENTRAL POLICY — PERTH MODERN SCHOOL

HON DONNA FARAGHER (East Metropolitan) [ 1.08 pm ]: I move —

That this house notes both the significant concerns being raised across the community and the lack of consultation undertaken by the McGowan government on its Education Central policy, particularly the proposed relocation of the state’s only fully academically selective senior high school, currently at Perth Modern School, to a high-rise inner-city school within the Perth City Link, and calls on the government to —

(1) reverse its Education Central policy and maintain Perth Modern School as a fully academically selective school; and

(2) revert to the comprehensive western suburbs secondary schooling strategy announced in September 2016.

 

HON ALISON XAMON (North Metropolitan) [ 2.57 pm ]: I rise on behalf of the Greens to indicate that we will also be supporting this motion. I want to unpick a number of the elements that have got us here today. It is unfortunate that so many different issues have, effectively, been conflated into this one matter, which has raised the concerns of so many parents and students at Perth Modern School, as well as former students. I have received huge amounts of correspondence on this issue, despite being yet to receive my member of Parliament email address three days into my term. Therefore, I am letting parents who may be sending me emails know that I have not received my official email address yet. I am dreading when I finally do get my laptop and open it to see what is waiting for me. Regardless, I have been contacted by many people via the address that I had during the election campaign. The relocation of Perth Modern School has universally caused distress and despair. We should not understate the extent to which people are feeling that.

I also point out that I am starting to receive quite a bit of correspondence from people who are disappointed about the decision not to proceed with the reopening of City Beach high school. That is from another cohort of parents. Those people were excited that finally there was going to be a solution to that problem and now they are despairing about what is going to happen. Based o n the correspondence I have received and the discussions I have had — as Hon Peter Collier pointed out, I was also at the meeting of concerned parents before the election — I do not believe that simply revealing the detail about what is going to occur with a new inner-city build will assuage the concerns of people currently attending Perth Mod. I think we need to find a way to pull out the various elements. The first element is reopening the City Beach school. The second element is whether we need a new inner-city high school that will cater for the people who are moving closer to and into the city. There is the issue about where Perth Modern School should be best placed. There is the issue of high-rise buildings, and I will suggest to this place that the Greens have a different position on high-rise buildings. There is also the broader issue about planning and how these decisions are made.

First, I will make some comments about the issue of consultation. I suggest, with respect, that the consultation that I would have expected on a decision as enormous as this, particularly with the impact on an existing school such as Perth Mod, has not been as I believe it needed to be or as I would have expected a government to conduct consultation. I am hearing claims from the government that it believes it has a mandate to proceed with the proposal it has now presented, but I suggest, with respect, that that is not the case. Consultation is more than simply announcing a proposal. Consultation is also about seeking feedback from affected stakeholders and being prepared to be open to changing that proposal into the future. I do not see any evidence that this has occurred, and I think that is why people are feeling so distressed. They are distressed not only about what has been proposed, but also because there was no input from people who will be directly affected by this decision. Simply publishing a policy on the Labor Party website is not consultation. It is really important that this government recognise that. I come into this place insisting that we engage in consultation on a whole range of issues. I said in this place on my second day back in Parliament that we need to look at genuine consultation around the Criminal Law (Mentally Impaired Accused) Act and the National Disability Insurance Scheme model. I say very clearly that if consultation on those two areas resembles anything like what is being attempted to be passed as consultation on this issue, the government will have a real problem on its hands, because there is no way that anyone can consider that to be genuine consultation.

I also note that in the correspondence that has managed to get through to me, despite the fact that I do not have my MP email address yet, I have received concerns from some parents within the Perth Mod community about the nature of this proposal. This is something that I have discussed with Hon Donna Faragher. The reason for that is that it is quite clear to me that a number of parent groups are trying to grapple with this decision. People desperately do not want their concerns to be seen as being party political. I know that some people who were involved with the massive petition that was tabled today have expressed concern and they want members in this place to be assured that a decision to bring on this motion was not intended to be party political. I suppose I was contacted because a number of parents believe that as I am in the Greens rather than in either the Liberal Party or the Labor Party, I can somehow broker through that. It is important to note that this issue is not being fought along party political lines; it is very heavily coming from just very concerned people.

I acknowledge the work of the Save Perth Modern School action group. It is working really hard to try to ensure that people listen to what it is saying. I understand that it is also planning a peaceful walk to Parliament tomorrow, so I look forward to having the opportunity to talk to more people then. I also acknowledge the work of the We Need a High School group, which has been tirelessly campaigning for a new high school in the western suburbs. It is obviously quite upset by this decision.

I believe the community has a clear expectation that Perth Modern School should remain in its current location and as an academically selective school. I feel very confident that that is the general perception of the community. Having said that, it is really disappointing that we cannot just leave Perth Mod as it is and still have a really important discussion about the need for an inner-city school, because, my goodness, we need it. We know that Perth Modern is renowned and that people take huge pride in the school’s achievements. I very much agree with the comments of the Minister for Education and Training about the need to have more of these types of schools. I thought that that was a very important comment. Certainly, the Greens would support an expansion of options for students from around the metropolitan area and, indeed, from around the state to have access to similar sorts of schools. We hope that can be looked at at some point in the future.

Going back to how we got here in the first place, I want to be very plain: we do not believe that City Beach high school should have been closed in the first place. It was a poor decision. We believe the closure of the school in 2005 demonstrated a real lack of foresight and planning. This has been further aggravated by the closure of other western suburbs schools. The closures of Hollywood, Swanbourne and Scarborough senior high schools were also extraordinarily poor decisions. This happened under both Labor and Liberal governments and, of course, led to the situation that we have now in which schools are incredibly overcrowded. I certainly accept the comments by the Minister for Education and Training on the concerns about having high schools that are simply too large. We have a problem with overcrowding in our existing schools. The situation has become untenable, particularly for Shenton College, Churchlands Senior High School and Mount Lawley Senior High School. I also share the concerns of the parents of the children in those schools about what is going to happen. We need to understand that this will have a flow-on effect on decisions about what will happen.

I do not accept that we do not need a school in City Beach. That has been very much backed up by the commentary that I am hearing from people who live in that area. The Greens are of the view that a lot of planning has already gone into that. Too many schools were closed in that area and we should look at reopening at least one of them so that we can take some of the pressure off the other schools in the first instance.

I acknowledge that we need another inner-city school; there is no question about that. As someone who lives in the area and has had children and experienced that situation, I know it has been a real problem that the people who live in the city have not had an appropriate public high school to which they can send their children because the catchments are such that the options are extremely limited. There is no question that we need to look at another inner-city school. However, I note that in the past other planning has occurred on where inner-city schools could potentially be built. One lot that comes to mind is the early planning that occurred around Claisebrook and setting up a school in conjunction with the TAFE.

Debate interrupted, pursuant to standing orders.

 

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