Community Alliance Party

Address to the official launch of the Community Alliance Party
Thursday June 12th, 2008
Albert Hall

Your Community Schools Count

JANE TULLIS
Candidate for Ginninderra

Good evening ladies and gentlemen.
“consultation begins with a decision”

That was the phrase Ms Gallagher, then Minister for Education, used at the first public meeting to discuss the closure, in 2005, of Ginninderra District High School, which was my daughter's high school. As the P&C President, I was sitting only two seats away from Ms Gallagher on that tumultuous occasion, and I can still hear in my mind that expression today.

It sounded the death knell for our school.  It immediately told us that, no matter what we did, the outcome was predetermined.  No matter what consultation took place, the government's mind was already made up.

I gathered a large group of parents anyway because surely the community's opinion would count.  We met weekly in my home, and we fought bravely to save our school.  And each time we met, there was something new to report by way of deceitful manipulation by the government; the most significant example of this being the artful dodging of actually naming a reason for the closure.

At first the government said that the numbers were in decline; we'd had our largest year 7 enrolment that year.  Then they said that our numeracy and literacy results were so low; we'd had in fact improved in both areas.  And on went the dance.  We could never pin them down to an exact reason for the closure, which meant we could never hope to implement any changes which might lead to them reversing their decision.

It was so devastating to watch our community's high school demolished to make way for a super school (which will lead to the closure of 4 more schools in our area when it opens). 

Then this was another quote:
“This concept is fully transportable across the entire ACT”

That was a quote from the freedom of information material my community of parents was able to obtain. We tried to warn others that the government already had plans to close many schools in the near future.  But not one of us could comprehend the devastation that would be caused by the Towards 2020 plan when it was announced.  The audacity is to be marvelled at.

It was one of those moments when I cried out in frustration “someone has to do something!”  Only to realize that my life's philosophy has always been that each individual is someone, someone important, so we're ALL responsible for doing something.

I had been approached by several different people to think about running in an election; however, I found I couldn't resolve myself to adopting any existing party's platforms.  I also knew that to campaign successfully as an independent was nigh on impossible in the ACT.

So what attracted me to join in the formation of the Community Alliance Party?  Simply put, it was the fact that this party in no way seeks to promote it's own agenda at the expense of the people of the ACT region.  We have developed, and will continue to refine with community input, a whole range of policy areas; however, we will fully and unreservedly support any good policy regardless of its party of origin.  Because your community counts, we want the best solutions for you, not ones watered down and compromised by internal party politics.

Our number one objective is to restore balance in ACT government so that open, genuine debate can be re-established in the determination of good policy.  Built into our constitution is each candidate's right to express their own view on any issue which is a huge safety net against runaway, domineering party politics.

It literally means that I am free, mandated in fact, to determine the needs of my community and to endeavour to lobby on their behalf, with the full support of my party colleagues.

This is a new approach, it is revolutionary, and I am totally convinced that it will work!

In the portfolio of education, I can already assure you of a number of things.  When your votes carry us into government, we promise, AND WILL DELIVER, a re-opening of any school where both the community support exists and the current buildings are occupiable.  We WILL re-open Hall and Tharwa.  How ridiculous to have taken away THE central location of such small close-knit communities.

We WILL re-open Flynn Primary School, and I must say, NEVER have I seen such a determined and prolonged campaign to save a school as this one.  Cook Primary School is another one we will happily support re-opening should their community still wish it.  And we will consider others re-opening as well.

Of course, there will be a cost to these re-openings  but we believe this will be a worthwhile investment in the future of our families and our communities.  We are counting the cost of everything we are proposing and part of that is that not all families will reconnect with their local communities..

Luckily for us, having established that there has been, and will be, several hundred millions in wasted expenditure from the current government, we feel very confident that we can deliver on our proposed expenditure.

The current majority government is also talking up expenditure in the lead up to the election of course; but let's examine how they're financing it.  They have recently announced $95 million in expenditure on upgrading community facilities across the ACT, which of course is wonderful news.  In order to achieve this, was there a careful shaving of budgets across all portfolio's in order to invest such money into community facilities?  No, it was more like a napalming exercise directed solely at public education through the en masse closure of schools, thereby labelling public education as unimportant and able to be sacrificed.

The current government's definition of the word 'consult' is an insult.
I'm here to tell you that consultation does NOT begin with a decision.
If ever there was a time for the ACT community to express their outrage at the utter arrogance of the current runaway government, this election year is it.

It makes no difference to me if you feel that your particular issue is minor in the scale of things.  If it's important to you then it's important to me, and I, and the Community Alliance Party, will do our utmost to help find a solution. 

Because regardless of whether, for your issue, your community is simply your family unit, your social group, your suburb, or the entire ACT region.  We want to stand alongside you because…Your Community Counts!