Local campaign secures special school for Cairns

After years of campaigning, the State Budget brought cause for cautious celebration for many FNQ teachers and parents, with the announcement of funding for the long-awaited Cairns Special School.

Due for opening in 2017, it is contingent on $25 million over two years, with the latest site pegged adjacent to Woree State High School. This year’s budget contained $7 million towards the project, with the rest due in next year’s announcement.

The city of Cairns does not currently have a school facility for students with multiple or significant impairments. Most students with extreme special needs are currently dispersed around the area, enrolled in special education programs in a variety of local schools, none of which has the resources to provide specialised programs for a small number of very high-need students.

So five years ago, a passionate standing-room only crowd of local educators launched a campaign to ensure that students, parents and teachers should have access to a special school located in Cairns that not only served the city but also the whole far north region. Since then, intensive political lobbying has occurred with three successive state governments. In practical terms this has involved convincing each new FNQ MP and Minister for Education – first ALP, then LNP, then ALP – of the importance of funding what is envisaged as a resources hub as well as a special school.

FNQ regional personnel are to be commended on their ongoing support and advocacy. Parent activism has also been impressive, with various individuals and groups maintaining an ongoing positive media presence.

One constant during this time has been the support of Mulgrave MP and former Disabilities Services Minister Curtis Pitt, a firm proponent of the scheme since meeting an early QTU delegation led by then acting QTU Organiser Zeb Sugden.

The first tangible outcome of this support was when the Bligh Labor government made a 2012 election promise to build a special school. After the ALP’s massive electoral loss, Curtis Pitt issued a media release “LNP must build the Cairns Special School”, which then put pressure on his newly elected LNP counterparts in Cairns to express bi-partisan support. Fast forward to 2015, and as Treasurer he is now delivering on what he terms “a project close to my heart”.

Recently elected Cairns ALP MP Rob Pyne has been quoted in the media with sentiments that sum up the outcome of the collective campaign: “First and foremost I’m pleased that Cairns will get a fantastic new educational facility that will benefit students and their families for years to come”.

Maureen Duffy
QTU Organiser Peninsula and North West

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 120 No 6, 21 August 2015, p4