Ms JENNY AITCHISON (Maitland) (23:43):I again speak to the House about a primary school in myelectorate that requires urgent attention from the Government—Gillieston Public School.Since its playground equipment was destroyed in the April 2015super storms just after I was elected, parents from the area havebeen coming into my office—flooding, I would say—to complain about the substandard facilities at this school.But it is not just the play equipment. Until I started raisingthis issue, the boys' toilets had a dirty, mud floor. The school isstill using septic tanks and as one little boy puts it, "Yes, the poo truckcame again today, mummy." Parents have told me that their children havehad bladder and bowel issues as they could not bear to use theablutions block. It is not acceptable in this day and age.

Fun fact: in just 10 days' time, the United Nations will observe World Toilet Day to draw the world's attention to the importance of accessible toilets and their role in improving hygiene and health around the world. Yet, here we are in 2021 and we have a school just two hours up the road where students do not have access to the town sewer system. What a disgrace. After the floods, students could not play on the area around the septic tanks due to the health risk from the saturated grounds and School Infrastructure NSW at the time told me that they could not connect it to the town sewer system because water does not run uphill. That is ridiculous because houses on the other side of the road are connected to the town sewer system. How did the Government fix the problem? It dropped an ever-increasing number of demountables on the area where the septic tanks are. The problem is, the demountables are encroaching on the precious playground space.

There are just two permanent buildings and nine, soon to be 10, temporary buildings on this school site. There was even a fire in one of the permanent buildings—the old schoolhouse on the corner of the school grounds—that went unrepaired for over a year under this Government. The demountables are providing a haven for snakes, which are escaping the rapidly developing housing estates surrounding the school. That means the school has to go into lockdown every time a brown snake is seen, which is happening with increasing frequency. The snakes live underneath the demountables or in the long grass at the back of the block, which has not been maintained in over six years. This long sloping grassland is unsuitable for playing on. Mums have told me they are worried that their children will twist their ankles or even break them on the sloping fields when they are playing soccer and running around with their mates.

They have split assemblies at this school because the whole school cannot fit into the raised hall because it is a demountable, which is not even air-conditioned. We had to fight for years to have the steps replaced with ramps so that children, parents and even teachers with accessibility problems could enter the hall. The fence around the school is a short chicken wire fence that is not much taller than this table. Today I heard a child had escaped from the school. What will the plan be when the new housing estate goes in on the opposite side of Ryans Road? How will the Government manage student safety when kids are jumping the fence into the traffic that is increasing or even into the construction sites? How is the Government going to manage the little track that services the school community for pick-ups? How will it stop drivers making U-turns on Northview Street because there is no other alternative pick-up point?

The kids at this school do amazing things. The principal and the teachers are engaging and the students are loving it. I have had appreciative reports from parents about former Principal David Crowe, who we have just lost to Kurri Kurri, as well as new Principal Lauren Fernando. They are professional and positive school leaders who have a team of dedicated staff who are seeking to support our local students, but how can that be possible in a school that is not fit for the twenty-first century? Public Education is vital. We must fund it properly. For the last decade, this Government has prioritised spending money on air conditioning in luxury corporate boxes in new sports stadiums or trains that do not fit the tracks, or which break after a few years in service, but they do not worry about air-conditioning the tiny school halls used by teachers, students and parents at Gillieston.

Tomorrow I will send an invitation to Premier Perrottet to meet with my community. I want him to bring the education Minister to meet the parents and explain to them why they do not deserve an upgrade to their school. The conditions at Gillieston Public School are not acceptable to me or anyone in our community. Every improvement to this school—the better play equipment, the repairs to the original school building, the ramps on some of the demountables, the concrete floor in the toilets—has been a hard fought battle. Once we got close to the Government purchasing another site, but it was too late and the developer sold it to another school operator. I assure the Premier and the Minister that I will continue to fight for this school and my community until we get the school we deserves.