❓ Mr Masters asked about unmet building/facility needs in Busselton schools following the Minister's tour. Mr Barnett acknowledged the need for upgrades, particularly at Busselton Senior High and in Dunsborough due to population growth, while highlighting investment in Margaret River and a new primary school.
AnsweredQoN 76Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
Based upon the minister's tour of most government schools in the Shire of Busselton on 20 July last month, can the minister advise whether he has found any unmet building or facility needs within any those schools? Mr BARNETT
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for some notice of this question, and for his assistance in the visit I made to schools in the Busselton-Margaret River area. I also thank Hon Barry House who was at most of those schools. That area has experienced a growth in population. The member for Vasse may not have been with me at the Margaret River Senior High School, but $7m has been spent on its upgrading to bring it up to the standard of a new school. It is superb. It is interesting that an upgrade of school facilities and the introduction of a strong dress code in a school is reflected by a raising of standards, performance and attitude in that school. I am not saying there were problems at Margaret River, but the school has advanced strongly. The Government announced it will build an additional primary school in the south Busselton area at a cost of $4.5m. That should be ready for the beginning of the 2002 school year. My other observation is that with the population growth we need to consider Busselton Senior High School. It is probably 35 or more years old. Like so many of the schools developed in the 1960s and 1970s, it needs upgrading and modernising to cope with new technology, and modern curriculum and teaching methods. An emerging issue is the situation in Dunsborough. The population there is growing rapidly and at some stage we will need to look at the provision of secondary school facilities in that area. An important issue will be whether it will be a middle school feeding into Busselton, or whether Busselton is reconfigured into a middle school and senior college. The Government is keeping up with the growth in primary school numbers. The challenge will be the provision of secondary education facilities. That is an obvious pattern occurring in a number of areas in the State. The Government is putting a huge effort into primary school facilities. I concede we need to rebuild and upgrade secondary facilities.
Mr BARNETT replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question, and for his assistance in the visit I made to schools in the Busselton-Margaret River area. I also thank Hon Barry House who was at most of those schools. That area has experienced a growth in population. The member for Vasse may not have been with me at the Margaret River Senior High School, but $7m has been spent on its upgrading to bring it up to the standard of a new school. It is superb. It is interesting that an upgrade of school facilities and the introduction of a strong dress code in a school is reflected by a raising of standards, performance and attitude in that school. I am not saying there were problems at Margaret River, but the school has advanced strongly. The Government announced it will build an additional primary school in the south Busselton area at a cost of $4.5m. That should be ready for the beginning of the 2002 school year. My other observation is that with the population growth we need to consider Busselton Senior High School. It is probably 35 or more years old. Like so many of the schools developed in the 1960s and 1970s, it needs upgrading and modernising to cope with new technology, and modern curriculum and teaching methods. An emerging issue is the situation in Dunsborough. The population there is growing rapidly and at some stage we will need to look at the provision of secondary school facilities in that area. An important issue will be whether it will be a middle school feeding into Busselton, or whether Busselton is reconfigured into a middle school and senior college. The Government is keeping up with the growth in primary school numbers. The challenge will be the provision of secondary education facilities. That is an obvious pattern occurring in a number of areas in the State. The Government is putting a huge effort into primary school facilities. I concede we need to rebuild and upgrade secondary facilities.
I thank the member for some notice of this question, and for his assistance in the visit I made to schools in the Busselton-Margaret River area. I also thank Hon Barry House who was at most of those schools. That area has experienced a growth in population. The member for Vasse may not have been with me at the Margaret River Senior High School, but $7m has been spent on its upgrading to bring it up to the standard of a new school. It is superb. It is interesting that an upgrade of school facilities and the introduction of a strong dress code in a school is reflected by a raising of standards, performance and attitude in that school. I am not saying there were problems at Margaret River, but the school has advanced strongly. The Government announced it will build an additional primary school in the south Busselton area at a cost of $4.5m. That should be ready for the beginning of the 2002 school year. My other observation is that with the population growth we need to consider Busselton Senior High School. It is probably 35 or more years old. Like so many of the schools developed in the 1960s and 1970s, it needs upgrading and modernising to cope with new technology, and modern curriculum and teaching methods. An emerging issue is the situation in Dunsborough. The population there is growing rapidly and at some stage we will need to look at the provision of secondary school facilities in that area. An important issue will be whether it will be a middle school feeding into Busselton, or whether Busselton is reconfigured into a middle school and senior college. The Government is keeping up with the growth in primary school numbers. The challenge will be the provision of secondary education facilities. That is an obvious pattern occurring in a number of areas in the State. The Government is putting a huge effort into primary school facilities. I concede we need to rebuild and upgrade secondary facilities.
My other observation is that with the population growth we need to consider Busselton Senior High School. It is probably 35 or more years old. Like so many of the schools developed in the 1960s and 1970s, it needs upgrading and modernising to cope with new technology, and modern curriculum and teaching methods. An emerging issue is the situation in Dunsborough. The population there is growing rapidly and at some stage we will need to look at the provision of secondary school facilities in that area. An important issue will be whether it will be a middle school feeding into Busselton, or whether Busselton is reconfigured into a middle school and senior college. The Government is keeping up with the growth in primary school numbers. The challenge will be the provision of secondary education facilities. That is an obvious pattern occurring in a number of areas in the State. The Government is putting a huge effort into primary school facilities. I concede we need to rebuild and upgrade secondary facilities.
Mr BARNETT replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question, and for his assistance in the visit I made to schools in the Busselton-Margaret River area. I also thank Hon Barry House who was at most of those schools. That area has experienced a growth in population. The member for Vasse may not have been with me at the Margaret River Senior High School, but $7m has been spent on its upgrading to bring it up to the standard of a new school. It is superb. It is interesting that an upgrade of school facilities and the introduction of a strong dress code in a school is reflected by a raising of standards, performance and attitude in that school. I am not saying there were problems at Margaret River, but the school has advanced strongly. The Government announced it will build an additional primary school in the south Busselton area at a cost of $4.5m. That should be ready for the beginning of the 2002 school year. My other observation is that with the population growth we need to consider Busselton Senior High School. It is probably 35 or more years old. Like so many of the schools developed in the 1960s and 1970s, it needs upgrading and modernising to cope with new technology, and modern curriculum and teaching methods. An emerging issue is the situation in Dunsborough. The population there is growing rapidly and at some stage we will need to look at the provision of secondary school facilities in that area. An important issue will be whether it will be a middle school feeding into Busselton, or whether Busselton is reconfigured into a middle school and senior college. The Government is keeping up with the growth in primary school numbers. The challenge will be the provision of secondary education facilities. That is an obvious pattern occurring in a number of areas in the State. The Government is putting a huge effort into primary school facilities. I concede we need to rebuild and upgrade secondary facilities.
I thank the member for some notice of this question, and for his assistance in the visit I made to schools in the Busselton-Margaret River area. I also thank Hon Barry House who was at most of those schools. That area has experienced a growth in population. The member for Vasse may not have been with me at the Margaret River Senior High School, but $7m has been spent on its upgrading to bring it up to the standard of a new school. It is superb. It is interesting that an upgrade of school facilities and the introduction of a strong dress code in a school is reflected by a raising of standards, performance and attitude in that school. I am not saying there were problems at Margaret River, but the school has advanced strongly. The Government announced it will build an additional primary school in the south Busselton area at a cost of $4.5m. That should be ready for the beginning of the 2002 school year. My other observation is that with the population growth we need to consider Busselton Senior High School. It is probably 35 or more years old. Like so many of the schools developed in the 1960s and 1970s, it needs upgrading and modernising to cope with new technology, and modern curriculum and teaching methods. An emerging issue is the situation in Dunsborough. The population there is growing rapidly and at some stage we will need to look at the provision of secondary school facilities in that area. An important issue will be whether it will be a middle school feeding into Busselton, or whether Busselton is reconfigured into a middle school and senior college. The Government is keeping up with the growth in primary school numbers. The challenge will be the provision of secondary education facilities. That is an obvious pattern occurring in a number of areas in the State. The Government is putting a huge effort into primary school facilities. I concede we need to rebuild and upgrade secondary facilities.
My other observation is that with the population growth we need to consider Busselton Senior High School. It is probably 35 or more years old. Like so many of the schools developed in the 1960s and 1970s, it needs upgrading and modernising to cope with new technology, and modern curriculum and teaching methods. An emerging issue is the situation in Dunsborough. The population there is growing rapidly and at some stage we will need to look at the provision of secondary school facilities in that area. An important issue will be whether it will be a middle school feeding into Busselton, or whether Busselton is reconfigured into a middle school and senior college. The Government is keeping up with the growth in primary school numbers. The challenge will be the provision of secondary education facilities. That is an obvious pattern occurring in a number of areas in the State. The Government is putting a huge effort into primary school facilities. I concede we need to rebuild and upgrade secondary facilities.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.