Plans for school in booming suburb ditched, despite $20 million already spent
The former Coalition government announced plans to build a second public school in Westmead in 2018. But visions for the school regularly shifted at the hands of School Infrastructure NSW, and was referred to as a 'problem site' at a recent Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry.
After questions from the Herald about an additional $953,000 for 'Westmead school projects' in this year's budget, the state government this week confirmed it had abandoned trying to find a location for the school.
Instead, it will spend that money upgrading and expanding existing primary schools at Westmead and nearby Rydalmere, Rydalmere East and Ermington West.
The government is also investigating sites for new high schools in Westmead and Rydalmere, said Acting Education Minister Courtney Houssos.
'The Minns Labor government is drawing a line under two grossly flawed proposals put forward by the former Liberal-National government that they announced without adequate planning or due diligence, with potentially disastrous results,' she said in a statement, describing the plans as 'nothing more than a media announcement' with 'no plan to ever deliver'.
Loading
'We know that there will be future population growth in these areas, and we are committed to building new schools to meet the long-term needs of local families with site selection work well under way.'
Numbers from this year's budget show an estimated $20,485,000 has been spent on the project since its inception, a figure which includes some land acquisition.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
an hour ago
- Sky News AU
Julian Leeser urges Anthony Albanese to commit and implement Special Envoy recommendations on antisemitism
Liberal MP Julian Lesser has called on Anthony Albanese to implement all recommendations in the Special Envoy's Plan to Combat Antisemitism. Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal handed down a major report on Thursday, outlining a series of measures to combat antisemitism she claimed had 'reached a tipping point that threatens social harmony, undermines trust in institutions and marginalises Jewish Australian citizens'. Speaking to Sky News Australia on Sunday, Mr Leeser welcomed the report as he stressed the need for the recommendations to be implemented. 'While this is a terrific work plan for the Special Envoy, what we haven't seen is a commitment from government,' Mr Leeser told Kieran Gilbert on Sky News' Sunday Agenda. 'The Special Envoy's got a very big task ahead of her if she's going to bring the universities to heel, if she going to deal with the cultural institutions, if she's going to deal with social media companies. 'In order to be successful, she needs to do that with the full commitment of the Prime Minister in his office. And that's why we're calling on the Prime Minster, and Tony Burke, and the Government to commit to the Special Envoy's recommendations. 'And while the Prime Minister and Tony Burke made all the right noises at the press conference earlier this week, we've seen in the past the Special Envoys make sensible recommendations and yet those recommendations (have been) ignored." Mr Leeser said the most disturbing factor following the Hamas October 7 attack is the seriousness some people don't show towards antisemitism. 'One of the most disturbing factors in the report is the fact that young people under 35 don't recognise the seriousness of antisemitism and don't treat it properly. And that is in part because of what is happening in our schools, in our universities and online,' he said. An issue the Liberal MP has been pushing for is an inquiry into the 'normalised' stance on antisemitism at university campuses and cultural institutions. 'We have antisemitism having been normalised on university campuses and in the cultural institutions,' he said. 'More than a year ago, I put forward a proposal for a judicial inquiry into antisemitism on campus, where we've had university academics having their offices urinated on, where we've had students wearing Yarmulkes' being spat at and told that they're responsible for the deaths of babies in Gaza. 'This is an intolerable situation to go on. We've had Jewish artists cancelled. We've had things going on online and in schools and in other areas of our society that the Prime Minister has refused to address.' Mr Leeser said universities should be life-transforming places where people get an education, have more opportunities in life and can freely debate and engage in ideas of robust and difficult conversations. Instead, he said there is hate and division rising across Australian campuses where Jewish staff and students are being silenced and intimidated. 'There has been an attempt to silence Jewish academics. There has been an attempt to intimidate Jewish academics, Jewish staff and Jewish students in recent times. And that just shouldn't be what universities are about,' he added. 'And the worst thing has been the way in which university leaders have been too slow to act or ignored the fact that there was any problem.' Mr Leeser pointed towards a moment where pro-Palestine encampments continued for months at Sydney University until Vice-Chancellor Professor Mark Scott apologised to Jewish students for failing them. 'The encampment were only disbanded after the Vice-Chancellor promised to let His Butte to Rear, which is an organisation that several of our partners list as a terrorist organisation, run their ruler over security and defence contracts that the university had, just demonstrated how out of touch universities are with the expectations of ordinary Australians that universities should be a place for free debate and inquiry,' he said. At the time, Professor Scott said he apologised to Jewish students for feeling unsafe during the eight-week Students for Palestine protest. "If students have felt unsafe or unwelcome, if that is their lived experience, if that is their testimony, we have failed them," he said. "Yes, I have failed them and the university has failed them and that is why we have made significant changes to our policy settings.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism report comes at a time of the recent rise of hate towards Jewish Australians. 'The Albanese Government has zero tolerance for prejudice or hatred of any kind,' Mr Albanese said. 'Antisemitic behaviour in Australia, including its recent rise, is unacceptable and the appointment of Ms Segal demonstrates our Government's firm commitment to tackling antisemitism head-on.' Ms Segal said combating antisemitism has never been more important than it is today. 'The Jewish community in Australia is experiencing valid feelings of fear in the face of increasing antisemitism,' she said.
Sky News AU
an hour ago
- Sky News AU
Coalition demands Prime Minister Anthony Albanese raise important ‘security issues' in meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping
The federal Coalition is demanding Prime Minister Anthony Albanese raise important 'security issues' in his upcoming meeting with China's President. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese landed in Beijing late on Saturday evening, beginning a six-day visit that will include his fourth meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping. Key figures in the Albanese government have said they hope the trip will lead to a stronger 'economic partnership' with China, which is by far Australia's largest trading partner. The federal Coalition has welcomed the focus on stronger economic ties, but shadow attorney general Julian Leeser stressed the government must raise security issues that continue to be a source of tension between the two countries. 'The relationship with China is very important… It's really important for Australian jobs and the Australian economy that we have a successful trading relationship with China,' Mr Leeser told Sunday Agenda. 'China is our largest trading partner. They're larger in terms of trade, than the next four or five trading partners combined. 'We want to see more markets for Australian goods - like blueberries… so the focus on the economy is very good. 'But we also must make sure that the Prime Minister raises some of the security issues that are part of the relationship.' The shadow minister named a Chinese warship conducting live fire drills in the Tasman Sea earlier this year, as well as the importance of the US presence in the Indo-Pacific, as among the issues the Prime Minister must raise. 'What happened in the Tasman Sea, where we had the Chinese warships in the Tasman Sea in a disrespectful manner, is not on, and it's important that the Prime Minister raise these issues,' he said. 'It's important that the Prime Minister raise the ongoing relationship with the US, and the US's role in the Indo-Pacific, and that he raises the detention and treatment of Australians in Chinese prisons as well. 'Those are issues that are also part of the relationship. So I welcome a focus on trade, but we need to hear a comprehensive discussion between the Prime Minister and President Xi.' Treasurer Jim Chalmers told Sky News Australia the Albanese government had raised issues of disagreement as it worked to stabilise the relationship since taking office. 'We've worked really hard to stabilise this relationship. We've worked through issues in a calm and consistent way without compromising what's important to us,' Mr Chalmers said. 'We've raised issues and complexities when it's been important that we do that. 'But overall, our efforts to stabilise the relationship and now to strengthen that relationship are in the interests of our people and their economy. There couldn't be a more important time to do that. "That's why it's so good that Prime Minister Albanese is engaging with leaders in China, businesses in China, to try and maximise these opportunities that are so central to the relationship." Mr Leeser said he wanted Australia to have a 'good trading relationship with China', but he signalled this was unlikely unless the CCP changed its approach to the rules-based international order. 'I think it's very much in both countries' interests for it to return to those days (during the Howard government), where we had record trade with China and we had a relationship in relation to security and other geostrategic issues that did not concern us. "We want to have an Indo-Pacific where countries abide by the rules-based international order, where no one power is dominant, where there is people playing by the rules of law - that's very, very important. "We've worked through issues in a calm and consistent way without compromising what's important to us," the Treasurer said. "We've raised issues and complexities when it's been important that we do that. But overall, our efforts to stabilise the relationship and now to strengthen that relationship in the interests of our people and their economy, there couldn't be a more important time to do that. "That's why it's so good that Prime Minister Albanese is engaging with leaders in China, businesses in China, to try and maximise these opportunities that are so central to the relationship. 'We want to have a respectful relationship with China, and we want to have a good trading relationship with China. If the People's Republic of China wants to do that with Australia, then we're very much up for that.'
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘Oblivion': Graph shows truth we all missed
When the Abbott government was elected in a landslide at the 2013 election winning 90 out of 150 lower house seats, it represented a level of numerical ascendancy in the lower house of parliament seen only once in the last 40 years of politics prior to the recent federal election. The previous instance occurred in 1996 at the election of the Howard government, when the Coalition won 94 out of 148 lower house seats. Since then, to say that things have gone wrong for the Coalition would be an understatement. Their total ranks in the lower house have been more than halved, with the Coalition winning just 43 seats at May's federal election. Exactly why the Coalition failed so spectacularly when their strong belief within the party was that they would be returning to power less than a week before election day, remains a matter of great debate. But there is one factor that is definitively not the Coalition's ally, demographics, with one avenue in particular going against them. When it comes to the various demographic breakdowns whether they be by income, social class or education, the scales get tilted toward the Coalition or toward Labor. For example, at the 2022 election, the primary vote of Australians with a tertiary education favoured Labor over the Coalition by 9 percentage points, 35 per cent to 26 per cent. If we shift the focus to members of the electorate earning $140,000 per year or more, Labor is favoured by 5 percentage points, 35 per cent to 30 per cent. But the greatest divide is not defined by education, income or social class, it's by home ownership. This echoes the findings of studies done on elections in Britain and elsewhere, which concluded that if a voter owns a home, they are significantly more likely to vote for a conservative party than a renter. To paraphrase the commentary of Sydney barrister and writer Gray Connolly: Why would young people vote conservative if they have nothing to conserve? According to the findings of the 2022 Australian National University Election Study, 26 per cent of renters gave their first preference vote to the Coalition, with 37 per cent giving their vote to Labor. On the other in the ranks of homeowners, 38 per cent gave their first preference to the Coalition, with 32 per cent going to Labor. On balance a homeowner was 46.2 per cent more likely than a renter to give their first preference vote to the Coalition. Home Ownership According to census figures analysed by AMP, the overall home ownership rate peaked almost 60 years back in 1966. It has since declined significantly, but the fall in overall ownership masks vast differences between different age demographics over time. In terms of a breakdown by age demographic, figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) reveal what proportion of households were homeowners, starting with Australians born 1947 to 1951 at the 1976 census. The AIHW has since measured each subsequent five-year block in births for home ownership at each Census, with the latest measured at the 2021 census those born between 1992 and 1996. The figures reveal that despite pandemic-related distortions at the latest data point making things appear more favourable, the households of Australians aged 25 to 29 had the lowest home ownership rate for any five-year age demographic block on record. But it's not just young people who are doing worse than their predecessors. Almost every generation that has come after the eldest Baby Boomer cohort, who were born 1947 to 1951, has had a worse rate of home ownership than the generation that came before it. For example, for Australians born in 1967 to 1971 who were aged 50 to 54 at the last census, the home ownership rate was 72.4 per cent, compared with 79.6 per cent when those born 1947 to 1951 were that same age. For people aged 35 to 39 at the 2016 census, the home ownership rate was 59.2 per cent, compared with 69.1 per cent for those born 1952 to 1956 and 72.3 per cent for those born 1947 to 1951. This downward trend in home ownership rates repeats itself again and again across the last five decades and all the various age demographics. The Current State Of Play According to recent Redbridge polling, the Coalition is behind Labor in the 18 to 34, 35 to 49 and 50 to 64 age demographics, falling to third in the 35 to 49 age demographic, behind Labor and others, a collection of third-party candidates outside of the Greens. Meanwhile, the Coalition leads in primary vote in just one age demographic, voters aged 65 and over. Looking Ahead From a self-interested perspective based purely on electoral demographics, deteriorating rates of home ownership are not a problem for Labor or the Greens, with renters significantly more likely to vote for them than they are for the Coalition. But for the Coalition, they are a political time bomb. The average age of a rank-and-file member of the Liberal Party is 68 and their ranks continue to dwindle, as existing members pass on and there is increasingly little interest from younger demographics to replace them. A further deterioration in home ownership and household formation rates would be an electoral demographic disaster for the Coalition and there is little evidence of the current downward trend being arrested. In a vacuum it would seem the Coalition has three choices, align itself more strongly with renters as it did relatively successfully in the decades following World War 2, commit to policies that will credibly dramatically raise rates of home ownership or continue on its march toward electoral demographic oblivion.
