Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to lend my support to the Derby community in Western Australia's Kimberley region as it campaigns for urgent upgrades to Derby District High School.

In early July, at the invitation of local community leaders, I visited the school to inspect the facilities available to staff and students. As I arrived, I had the pleasure of meeting the junior school student leadership group, including Harvey Elford, who presented me with a letter regarding the poor state of the buildings there—particularly about the proposed upgrades to toilets. Harvey's letter to me said: 'Dear Senator Smith, I'm writing to you about our upper lower primary boys' and school's toilets and the fact that they need to be completely redone. If you come to inspect, you will see this. This is an extremely unsanitary environment—very concerning in times like these. The floor is not level, a trip hazard, the toilets were built on a very low budget, our cubicles are atrocious, some of the wall is missing near the urinal and even the roof is disgusting. The fact that these toilets are decades-old and absolutely nothing has been done about it means that you might as well flush the money down the toilet if you're going to just upgrade. We hope you change the government's mind and do a complete rebuild of the toilets.'

While the teachers and parents at the school have created a nurturing, student focused environment, the built form of the school is in an unacceptable state of disrepair. There has been a failure by successive governments to provide funding for building upgrades, which is now having a detrimental impact on student outcomes. An audit of hygiene arrangements at Derby District High School demonstrates it is failing to provide adequate bathroom facilities for both students and teachers. For the 93 enrolled senior students there is only one male and one female toilet cubicle, which were built to 1965 standards. This is unacceptable by any measure, and it has particular negative impact for the young women of the school, with parents indicating that many refuse to attend classes during their menstruation cycle due to the lack of privacy and the poor facilities available. Across the whole school the only showers available for students are within special needs facilities. The other showers are cold water only, with minimal privacy separation, which limits the variety of physical education options and prevents the school from hosting interschool events. For a school in the remote north of Western Australian with a hot, humid climate, this limitation is unworkable and disrespectful to students and teachers alike.

The ordinary provision of adequate hygiene facilities is vital to providing dignity, but, given the risk of COVID-19, there is a clear need to address the insufficient facilities at Derby District High School immediately. It's disappointing that, despite knowing about the issue, the WA government overlooked the school in a recent announcement of infrastructure upgrades for 63 other schools. The Derby community deserves a straightforward commitment now to a holistic plan that will address the shocking state of the school's asbestos-ridden buildings within a well-defined time frame. In recent media reports on the issue, the WA Labor minister for education advised that the department was producing a feasibility report to provide a secondary hygiene facility including toilets, showers and a laundry at the school. This response does not inspire the confidence of the Derby community. The isolation and seasonal weather of the Kimberley means that construction work is difficult to schedule. This should be recognised by ensuring that decisions to upgrade are made clearly and are made early. Any delay to a decision now would have a far more pronounced impact on delivery time frames in Derby than would a delay in the Perth metropolitan area or even other parts of Western Australia.

It is also important to note that Derby District High School has an enrolment of approximately 80 per cent Aboriginal students and services a number of remote Indigenous communities around WA's far north. The lack of any urgent action leads one to assume that the WA Labor government finds it acceptable that nearly 50 female students, 80 per cent of whom are Aboriginal, must share one toilet cubicle at a very critical, potentially sensitive time in their lives. Labor's Mark McGowan may be the Premier, but local Labor is not listening to local Kimberley people.