Question On Notice No. 2890 asked in the Legislative Council on 2 April 2020 by Hon Martin Aldridge
Question Directed to the: Minister for Education and Training
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
Question
I refer to Western Australian camp schools and the Minister's decision to privatise camp schools, and I ask:
(a) will the Minister table the numbers of schools and school children who have utilised each camp school to date;
(b) what are the rates
charged to Department of Education schools and students for each camp
school;
(c) has there been any
variance in the rates charged since the operations of camp schools have been
transferred to Fairbridge;
(d) what is the occupancy
rate of each camp school since the operations of camp schools transferred to
Fairbridge, and for the previous three financial years; and
(e) when
will the assessment of the performance of the agreement with Fairbridge be
completed?
Answered on 10 June 2020
Answer
I do not accept the premise of the question.
Retaining the asset and contracting service delivery to a not-for-profit organisation is not privatisation. Selling Western Power is privatisation. Multi nationals contracting a commercial for-profit company to provide key hospital services at Fiona Stanley Hospital is privatisation. The Hon. Member would be familiar with both because they were both policies of the previous Liberal-National government.
(a) I have provided this information to the House on 17 March 2020 in response to Question Without Notice 198 asked by Hon Colin de Grussa. I provide that information again. As the member has not specified a commencement date, the response is provided for 2019.
|
Camp School
|
Point Peron
|
Geraldton
|
Kalgoorlie
|
Dampier
|
Bridgetown
|
Pemberton
|
|
Schools
|
80
|
52
|
32
|
20
|
20
|
17
|
|
Students
|
3 055
|
1 445
|
861
|
560
|
846
|
423
|
(b) $50.00 per night per student in 2020. This is inclusive of GST which was not payable when the camp schools were operated by the Department of Education. The price excluding GST is $45.45
(c) The rate was increased from $46 per night in 2019.
(d) The Department of Education does not collect occupancy rates for the camp schools. The following table provides school and community attendance data. There is no data for 2018. As part of the transition process all camp school records were collected and archived so while it may be possible to collate data for 2018 it would be a time consuming exercise requiring an unreasonable diversion of Department of Education resources.
|
|
2016
|
2017
|
2019 (Fairbridge)
|
|
Camp School
|
Total Attended
|
Total Attended
|
Total Attended
|
|
Point Peron
|
5 226
|
5 414
|
4 409
|
|
Geraldton
|
1 762
|
2 361
|
2 132
|
|
Goldfields
|
1 725
|
1 247
|
1 282
|
|
Dampier
|
1 868
|
2 419
|
786
|
|
Bridgetown
|
1 931
|
1 890
|
1 099
|
|
Pemberton
|
2 066
|
2 055
|
599
|
(e) The lease provides that the parties shall meet to “review the Lease and discuss any opportunities for change, including improvements”. The Department has regularly met with Fairbridge to discuss the operation of the lease. A meeting will be held before the end of the 2020 calendar year. A date is yet to be set.