Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am recounting the words said to me this morning by the principal of St Lucy’s. I would have thought that people would want to hear what the principal of St Lucy’s has got to say. What she had to say about the Building the Education Revolution project is that it had enabled them to install a lift and refurbish the toilets. This was important because when the school was first built, it was built as a school for the blind. It now mainly caters for children with autism and developmental delays. The old 1960 toilets were consequently not suitable to assist with the current cohort of students, many of whom are bigger children who are still incontinent. So normal-size toilets did not enable them to have the kind of change facilities that are necessary.

It should not require me to explain to this House why, in a special school, a lift to move students and staff between the floors of the school is important. The words of the principal of St Lucy’s were, ‘It has made such a difference to the staff and the students to have these new facilities’.

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