Canberra Liberals with community members at Flynn Primary School

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the specific issues about the consultation of the future use of the Flynn Primary School building.

I know that we can’t wind back the past six years but I do want to place on the record our belief that the Flynn school should never have been closed. I am proud of the work we have done with the Flynn community to try and maintain community facilities.

To the matter at hand, the MindPath report is a searing indictment of this current Labor government. While this report is mainly about the actions of officials, I believe that the ongoing disrespect shown to the Flynn community by Andrew Barr, Jon Stanhope and their personal political staff, stretching all the way back to 2006, created a permission structure that empowered officials to treat you with disrespect. The end results was the huge failings outlined in the MindPath report. Is it any wonder that they want to keep this secret.

If I were to become the Minister for Community Services in a Canberra Liberals government my commitment to the Flynn community is to reset consultations on the John Flynn Community Group (JFCG) proposal for a community facility to meet the needs of the Flynn community. Flynn is different in many ways because you have no community facilities and that needs to be rectified.

There is money appropriated to develop the former school building and we will work together, within that envelope of funding, to create a community centre based on the proposal put forward by JFCG and endorsed by the Belconnen Community Council. In that negotiation I commit that those involved on the part of a Canberra Liberal Government will not have participated in the previous “consultations”. I believe we need to start again, from scratch as a sign of good faith.

You ask in your email about reviewing the consultation guidelines. As I’ve said to you before, I don’t believe that there is a problem with the document but with the way it is applied, or not applied. We need to fix the culture in CSD to one where stakeholders are treated with respect. This will only be done with a change of culture at the top. This can only be guaranteed by a change to a Canberra Liberal government.

The Flynn community has been treated with utter disrespect over the past six years and to add insult to injury, after closing your school and leaving the building derelict, they now want to triple your rates!

It has always been a privilege and a pleasure to work with such committed and honourable people and, irrespective of the outcome of the election on Saturday, I commit to working with you for the best outcome for your community.

Vicki Dunne MLA
Member for Ginninderra
Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services