Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to bring to the chamber’s attention the matter of the Dallarnil State School south-west of Bundaberg. The school lies between Childers and Biggenden, and over recent years has catered for between 25 and 35 students. Currently it has 32 students and five senior staff. The school is the centre of Dallarnil’s farming community and has been there for 106 years. The school’s P&C has sought my urgent intervention. The school’s toilets are frequently without water because of an inefficient tank and toilet system. There is no reticulated town water. This has been exacerbated by drought because the emergency line from the school to the creek around a kilometre away cannot be used; the creek is dry.

Over Christmas, someone drained the school’s tanks requiring the Biggenden Shire Council to donate a tanker full of water to keep the school open. Despite frequent requests, Education Queensland has ignored this problem and failed to help the school. The situation is so dire that young children—and listen to this—are lining up and having to cart buckets of water to flush their own toilets, with the water coming from an old tank 30 metres from the toilet block. It is just unbelievable stuff.

There is no water for the urinal and teachers have to share their staff toilet with the older students to avoid queuing. Recently there was not sufficient water to run the hand basins in the toilet block. What little water is available comes to the school in a non stainless steel tanker and must be chlorinated; it is chlorinated to a point where the kids cannot use it in their drinking fountain so there is no drinking water.

Frankly, these are Third World conditions and completely unacceptable. It is a recipe for disaster. It is just a matter of time before children end up with hepatitis, dysentery or some other thing and then we will all be going around and beating our breasts and saying what about those poor children at Dallarnil. The time to act is now and for the sake of the students, the staff, the P&C and the families associated with this fine little school in rural Queensland, I call on Education Queensland to fix this appalling situation. They even had the gall to tell the school to go and apply for community water grants under the federal system. Surely to God, the state education department can get basics like water, sewerage or septic and light to their schools. If they cannot do that they are failing in the fundamentals and I condemn them for it.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! In accordance with standing order 193 the time for members’ statements has concluded.