Legislative Council. Monday 21 October 2024

APPROPRIATION BILL (No. 1) 2024 (No. 39)

Capital Services - Capital Investment Program

Ms FORREST - Madam Deputy Chair, the committee ran out of time in Education. We heard Treasury and Infrastructure. At the time, there was so much change and other portfolios for minister Ferguson and then we had Education on the same day and disability or the portfolios to the minister at the table. We ran out of time and I do appreciate the minister agreed to take the capital investment program as an open item to enable further debates so none of the questions was asked during the budget Estimates process on capital investment because of time.

I raise a concern I have and ask the minister to assure me and my community of Montello Primary School that they are not the poor cousins, that they have not been dudded, that they have not been left behind in what is a really important capital project on that school. I am grateful and my community of Montello Primary School is grateful for the additional funding that has been allocated to Montello Primary School, but this has been going on for years now, and we are all aware of the additional cost increases as a result of inflation and all the other impacts.

I received numerous messages from my Montello Primary School community that felt that whilst we are now up to about $12.5 million for Montello Primary School, straight off the bat in a new process, a new capital investment allocation just across the hill - and literally across the hill - at Burnie Primary School is $14 million straight-up. Now, Burnie Primary School absolutely needs that money. I do not dispute that. I am very grateful for that too; that is also in my electorate, but that is a relatively flat site. There is a bit of a gentle slope. It is a much newer building, although old and in need of capital works, absolutely. Montello is on an extremely steep site. It is a much older school. It is not accessible. The works are to create accessibility, but I know and I have said it before in this place, Madam Deputy Chair, that the minister has assured me the funding will be available to ensure that all the unsafe windows are replaced, the outdoor play area will be included, all the things that the school needs will be included. Well, I cannot see how that is the case with the current allocation.

It just seems to my community and to me, there is an inequity here in a disadvantaged school in a disadvantaged area, which has been on the list for some time, and so I would like the minister to assure me and my Montello school community that everything they need for this school to be fully accessible, to have adequate outdoor learning spaces that include shade, outdoor play areas where children - young children particularly - can go and de-escalate. Part of the original design was outdoor areas that had de-escalation areas for these young people that were safe, these little children, they would be safe in that environment. That the car parking arrangement and the pick-up and drop-off - both by parents and cars, but also school buses - will be safe. That the lift is adequate - not just to fit a child perhaps in a large wheelchair in it, but also the support that may be needed for that child, including a dog, if they have an assistance dog and a carer as well. That they will be able to have all the unsafe windows fixed, they will be able to have all those windows replaced that do not open safely, and they will stay open.

Madam Deputy Chair, if I can be assured of that in the current budget, that is great. If not, I ask: will the minister ensure that extra money is made available to ensure all those really necessary and important requirements for Montello Primary School are funded?

Ms PALMER - Madam Deputy Chair, I thank the member and I appreciate her advocacy. I am going to push back on you a little bit here. I do not like that narrative that this school would be considered as the 'poor cousins'. I would not want any child attending Montello Primary School to be hearing that, and certainly would not want them to be feeling that.

It is due to your advocacy that Montello Primary School was one of the first primary schools that I went to visit when I became the Education minister. I spent a considerable amount of time there. I looked at the unsafe windows, I stayed until school pick-up time, I saw how that functioned with families coming in and out. I spent one-on-one time with their amazing principal. I also had time with the business manager, went through the plans and the vision that they have for the school.

So, to be very clear: the allocation in the 2021-22 state Budget started at $7.1 million. Then, there was an internal funding allocation to the project of $2.8 million. Then, there was an additional allocation in this Budget through the 2024-25 state Budget, of another $2.5 million.

We know that the cost of things has changed and we have tried to respond and adapt as we could. What I can tell you is that I am advised that the increased budget now sitting at $12.45 million is sufficient to deliver the full scope of works as presented to the community in November 2023 and supported by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works and addresses the additional safety concerns raised around unsafe windows and addresses the concerns around the traffic movements also raised during the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works hearing of July 2024.

This is a beautiful school with an amazing principal and great families and I am very much looking forward to delivering them beautiful, safe environments. Of course the outdoor play area, I am also advised, is included in that.

Ms FORREST - Are they going to have a full sealing of the whole court or just half a court?

Ms PALMER - I do not have the details on that. I can see if we can seek advice on that. Yes, full court. To be honest and to be frank, I feel that in the time I have been minister I have been very responsive, as has the department. If we come to a position where there is a situation, costs skyrocket again, whatever it might be. We do not control those things but what we are trying to deliver are beautiful educational spaces for the children of Montello Primary School and we certainly have responded to the concerns from the principal and from the school business manager and the school association. We believe that we will be delivering a great outcome for that school.

Madam DEPUTY CHAIR - The question is that the item is read be agreed to. Member for Murchison.

Ms FORREST - Thanks, Madam Deputy Chair and I do appreciate the work that the minister has done to get additional funding. That is not in question, but I will push back a little bit too.

Ms Palmer - That is okay.

Ms FORREST - Because the minister, Madam Deputy Chair, noted that this response to the November 2023 proposal that was put to the school and to the Public Works Committee, which I know that you chair and you were there and you had heard the evidence provided at that time. The reality is that when we got to November 2023, a lot of what was necessary had already been cut from the project because the school was being told, before the current minister was the minister, that they needed to pare back, they needed to get rid of things and so one of the things that I understand that it got rid of was the outdoor play area for the infant school area. That was an area to have lots of interactive apply spaces to enable de-escalation, for these young children, many of whom have quite traumatic backgrounds.

I do not disagree. I note the minister's comments. She is very accurate and honest about what was presented to the school community in November 2023 but that was a proposal that had been reduced from what was originally proposed and identified as needed for that school. I thank the minister for her work to increase the budget to see that all the windows will be replaced. That was an absolute no-brainer in my mind that the -

Madam DEPUTY CHAIR - and the Public Works Committee as well.

Ms FORREST - Yes and that the parking arrangements and the drop-off and pick-up areas and the school bus matters were addressed because they are basic fundamental safety issues for children attending a school. It is on a very narrow street, a very suburban street. There is not much room. If you get cars parked on one side of the road, you cannot get through if you have got big vehicles or a bus on the other side, you cannot do it. There are tight corners everywhere around that school.

So, I will make that point and Madam Deputy Chair, I will have no hesitation in coming back to the minister and I know she will hear me. I know she will listen that if we cannot deliver what is actually needed, I will be back asking to make sure the school does get what it needs but I would like the minister to reflect on perhaps that playground area particularly, that I know was cut back or significantly reduced from what was first requested - from memory back in 2021. This goes back a long way and we had COVID in the middle of all of that. There was a proposal put when everything was on the table. There was a whole masterplan on the table that looked at even a new school down at the bottom of the oval. Okay. What was proposed and what was identified as needed by this school, because the funding in previous budgets was not adequate, the school committee had to agree to remove certain things, which they did reluctantly. And I note the amazing principal Dion McCall, who has worked really hard for this school and the school parent body.

Madam DEPUTY CHAIR - And the previous principal as well.

Ms FORREST - Yes, she was very active also, Denise Witherspoon, she could hold people to account too.

Could the minister clarify that matter, and if there is an opportunity to see those matters reinstated into the project, as part of this, I will be very grateful, as the school committee would also.

Ms PALMER - What I can commit to here and now is we will go back to Montello Primary School. There has been significant engagement with them to get to the point we are at now. If there is some other body of work that needs to be done, we will go back to the school, we will engage with them - all the checks and balances - because we want them to be excited and really happy about the work that is going to be done at their school.