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Welcoming the news that most school sites will not be sold off, the Community Alliance Party called on the Community Services Minister to do the honourable thing and not sign any agreements that could prevent Canberra's closed community schools from becoming schools again. "Canberra voters will view very dimly any move by the Government to sign binding agreements to demolish, alter or lease the buildings before voters can truly have their say on this at the October 18 election," according to Community Alliance Party, Candidate for Ginninderra, Jane Tullis. In another feat of pre-election gymnastics, the Stanhope Government today backflipped its way out of a plan to sell off closed school sites and finally bowed to community pressure to keep most of them for community use and open space and possible future use as schools. "Today's backdown is a slap in the face for the Chief Minister, Education Minister and TaMS Minister who spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars on the three sham consultations, only to be gazumped on land sales by strong public outcry in an election year," Mrs Tullis said. "After wasting so much money and inflicting so much pain on communities, it seems like the Government is ready to listen, at least until the election day in October." "Thankfully, the Government has me-too-ed the Community Alliance's community driven policy to retain most of the schools as community hubs and open space, with the prospect of them being future schools," Mrs Tullis said. "The one area where the government is still ignoring the public is on the community desire for neighbourhood schools. Yesterday the Minister would not rule out taking immediate steps to prevent the buildings becoming schools again," according to Mrs Tullis. "In view of the strong public opinion expressed consistently over the past two years, it would be unconscionable for the Government to lock-out the preferred future of the sites, and accordingly I call on the Minister to do the only honourable thing." Contact: Jane Tullis
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Media Releases 
The Community Alliance Party is a dynamic alliance of ACT residents, community groups, and business people. We are seeking to establish balanced government and to make our Capital a better and more affordable place to live. We will achieve this through:
