LNP commits $13m election pledge for Whitfield State School performing arts centre
A Cairns primary school which the LNP claims has not received any significant government funding in a decade has become the subject of a niche multi-million dollar election commitment.
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A Cairns primary school which the LNP claims has not received any significant government funding in a decade has become the subject of a niche multi-million dollar election commitment.
Liberal National Party candidate for the seat of Cairns Yolonde Entsch has committed $13m to the Whitfield State School to build a new performing arts and music centre.
Ms Entsch claimed the school of about 750 students had received no infrastructure funding for more than 10 years and the approximately 450 pupils engaged in performing arts were doing so in the basketball court, in undercover areas and “overcrowded classrooms”.
“This facility will allow those students to actually be learning in an environment that’s fit for purpose,” Ms Entsch said.
Parents and Citizens committee president Eve Elliott-Smith said parents had been liaising with politicians and departments for “a long time” but felt the school had “been overlooked for quite some time”.
“This funding means a great deal to our school, we’ve been advocating for infrastructure investment for many years, and we’ve had no significant infrastructure at our school for over a decade,” Ms Elliott-Smith said.
“The wellbeing of our students is a real priority for our school and the arts plays a massive role in that.”
It is unclear whether the school’s executive and teachers were also behind the push for the $13m facility, but Ms Elliott-Smith said staff would be “ecstatic”.
“There’s many teachers and staff that are excited about the arts in our school and would really be excited to have the facilities.”
Shadow minister for education and arts Dr Christian Rowan acknowledged parents had been calling for a performing arts centre “for a long period of time” while slamming an “infrastructure backlog” under the current government.
“We are looking at schools right across the state (to invest in), Dr Rowan said.
“There is an infrastructure backlog under the Labor the State Government, they’ve failed to invest in our schools and it’s no wonder our literacy and numeracy outcomes are lagging behind other states.
“There is a teacher workforce crisis here in Queensland around recruitment and retention, the LNP is focussed on that, we’ve already announced a policy in relation to additional teacher aides in primary schools and additional support teachers in secondary schools.”
A Labor spokesman told the Cairns Post “some schools don’t even know about these LNP announcements, they just announce them.”
In September, the state government announced $71m part of its teacher attraction, recruitment and retention plan which included $32m to provide financial support to graduate teachers who begin their careers in a state primary, secondary, combined or special school located in Far North Queensland, North Queensland, and Central Queensland regions.
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Originally published as LNP commits $13m election pledge for Whitfield State School performing arts centre
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