Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning I would like to speak briefly on the circumstances of the Rawlinson Primary School, which is within the electorate of Cowan. Rawlinson Primary is in the suburb of Marangaroo. It is a fairly new school, being about three years old now. The school is really thriving, and there is great diversity amongst the school’s population, with about 30 per cent being Vietnamese and about 18 per cent being Macedonian. Unfortunately, however, although this school is a thriving school in lots of respects, it is subjected to quite an amount of vandalism, break-and-enters and those sorts of crimes, which has a very negative impact on the children at the school.

On my visits to the school it has been very easy to see the etchings on all the glass panes as well as graffiti. I put that down to antisocial, criminal elements within the local area and possibly beyond. One of the major problems is that there is no security fence, and there is a desperate need for one. That was an issue before the last election. We tried to get the state government to realise that around $230,000 worth of damage and stolen property within a two-year period is probably enough reason to justify the spending of around $130,000 on a security fence. This school is not the only school within the electorate of Cowan that has these sorts of problems but it is probably the most extreme case. Something does need to be done. I personally wrote to the state minister about the matter early last month but I am yet to receive a reply.

I would like to pay tribute to the principal, John Mistilis, and the P&C—Kym Bonney and her team there—who have tried to progress this issue locally. I look forward to a time in the future when this matter can be dealt with properly and the problem fixed with higher-grade security. I pay tribute to the school community and hope that this matter will be resolved very quickly.