Paper Petition

The Petition of residents of the State of Queensland draws to the attention of the House that there are serious concerns with the proposed closure of Cairns North State School, currently being considered by Education Queensland. Consultation conducted by Education Queensland for the Minister for Education was narrowly focussed and has failed to gain a broad perspective about the potential effects of such a closure on the Cairns community. The School should not be deemed surplus to requirements when the interests of many sectors of the Cairns community have not been taken into account in the consultation process, including: • Families whose children have found some success at this school after experiencing failure in other larger schools. • Families who are interested in a school renewal proposal involving an alternative approach to education. This school is situated in an area of increasingly higher residential density, and is also centrally located to attract students from the surrounding region. • Migrant and Indigenous families, and organisations representing their interests. • Cairns residents and past pupils who are concerned about the school's long history and heritage values as the oldest school in Cairns. • Cairns City Councillors who are considering the impacts of Cairns’ projected population growth of 50% between 2001 to 2021.

Your petitioners therefore request that the House suspends any moves to close and sell Cairns North State School until such time as the interests of the community as outlined above can be properly addressed.