House debates

Tuesday, 12 June 2007

Statements by Members

Dallarnil State School

4:15 pm

Photo of Paul NevillePaul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I have a profound interest in the schools in my electorate and a particular soft spot for small state schools, former convent schools now run by lay people and small Christian schools of various denominations. The Investing in Our Schools Program did a tremendous amount, an incredible amount for them. I would like to raise today the matter of the Dallarnil State School. Dallarnil is not a town that would possibly come readily to mind. It is small town between Childers and Biggenden, Childers being in my electorate and, hopefully, Biggenden being in my new electorate—the electors willing. That school ran out of water—a state school, 32 kids, five teachers and support staff, no water. The Biggenden Shire Council provided a tanker load full of water and the school struggled along. It had an emergency supply to a creek, which dried up. In addition to that, it had an old tank in the yard that could not be used because of its doubtful health status. But we got to the point where the little kids were lining up with buckets to flush the toilets by hand.

Photo of Gary HardgraveGary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Is this a state school?

Photo of Paul NevillePaul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | | Hansard source

This is a state school. Then, in addition to that, when the water ran low they could not wash their hands. The teachers had to make the staff toilet available to the kids at times as well to try to keep up with the problem. It was a disaster waiting to happen; something like hepatitis or dysentery was just around the corner.

Since I raised this in the parliament recently, I am pleased to tell the House today that the state Minister for Education and Training, Mr Welford, has agreed to provide the school with two $3,000 tanks; in addition to that, he is going to upgrade the toilet system. I hope he will look into providing a line down to the creek so that we have a back-up in the future. But you cannot have kids in state schools living in Third World conditions. Surely it is up to the education department to provide shelter, water, sewerage and light—the basic fundamentals. While I am more than satisfied and happy that the kids will now be looked after properly, I call on the state government to make sure that this sort of appalling episode is not repeated in other small state schools.