Matter of Public Importance – Burleigh Heads State School, Miami State High School

30 Apr 2013 3:51 PMMichael Hart

Labor Governments, Debt; Burleigh Heads State School; Miami State High School

Mr HART (Burleigh—LNP) (11.51 am): I rise to inform the House of some very important milestones that have been reached in my electorate in the past month or so. Before I do that, I will address a couple of points raised by members opposite this morning.

I was very pleased to hear from the shadow Treasurer, the member for Mulgrave, that the Labor Party has a plan to pay down the debt of this state. I have not heard that plan, and I have been a member of this parliament for over 12 months. I have not heard a plan from those opposite on anything at all. It is not surprising that the people of Queensland have lost faith in the Labor Party in this state. The member for Mackay had five minutes to outline the plan that his side of politics has but, again, there was absolutely no plan. I do not think those opposite will ever produce a plan that has anything to do with paying down debt. They are very good at racking up debt and very good at denying debt, but they are not very good at paying it down.

The Leader of the Opposition brought up the matter of contestability. The Leader of the Opposition needs to look up ‘contestability’ in the dictionary to see what it is all about. Those in my household believe that there are a lot of government services delivered in a very good and timely manner. I wonder whether the Leader of the Opposition would agree with that. Does she believe that government services cannot stand up against those delivered by the private sector? Does she have a complete lack of faith in government entities that provide those services?

I rose to speak about the 96th anniversary of the Burleigh Heads State School which was celebrated on 19 March. The current principal, Mr Peter Tong, is ably supported by Ms Carol Brown, who has been at the school for over 30 years. Ms Brown is still loving it. It is a great thing to hear that one of our teachers has been at a school for over 30 years and is still thoroughly loving and enjoying her job.

The Burleigh Heads State School—which was referred to as No. 1568 in the old days—opened on 19 March 1917 in Tabilban Street, Burleigh Heads, with an enrolment of 11 pupils. That school is currently located on the lower Gold Coast Highway in the middle of Burleigh, where it has been since August 1935. This school, which started with 11 pupils, reached a peak enrolment of 1,200 students before other schools were built in the area. It now has a consistent student population of between 570 and 600.

Over the school’s 96 years a multitude of students have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, business leaders and sportspeople including Olympians. Most notably from this House, the Minister for Education, Training and Employment and member for Surfers Paradise is a past student, as is his sister, Kate. In fact, his father was a teacher at the school.

This school is central to the Burleigh community. It hosts markets on a Saturday morning and fashion markets on a Sunday morning. The people of Burleigh come and enjoy their days out in the sun. The school hosts fantastic events for the people of Burleigh.

Also, Miami State High School will this weekend celebrate its 50th birthday. Principal Jim Baker is doing a fantastic job putting together an agenda for the weekend. I look forward to attending. The school captain, Joel Ringland, will in fact come with me to Mackay on 10 May to be part of young people having input into the Queensland Plan. I am also looking forward to that.

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