Rev Fred Nile MLC, Leader of the Christian Democratic Party, gave strong support in the NSW Parliament to the 2,000 residents of Camden who are opposing the 1,200-student Islamic School near the Camden High School.

Reverend the Hon. FRED NILE: I ask the Minister for Education and Training a question without notice. Is it a fact that 2,000 Camden residents attended at very short notice a protest meeting at Camden Belgenny Oval on Monday 5 November in opposition to a proposed new Islamic school for 1,200 students and 200 teachers in rural Camden? Is it the fact that this Islamic school will be in the near vicinity of a large government school—Camden High School? Is it a fact that there are only 300 Muslims in the Camden local government area?

Will the Government assess the necessity for such a large Islamic school near a government school, which will involve bussing Muslim children from the western suburbs to Camden, and will the Minister intervene in this application so as to maintain social harmony in this region and encourage the small number of Muslim children to attend the local government schools, particularly Camden High School?

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: I hesitate to answer the member's question in regard to the specifics around this particular application. I have attended to some modest media controversy about this in the past few days on various radio programs, and I think there was some attention given to the issue in the print media. I can confirm that the Board of Studies has not received any application from the Quranic Society for the establishment of a non-government school in the Camden area. Should the board receive such an application it will make a recommendation to me as the Minister under the Education Act and, obviously, the same rigorous criteria will apply to that school as applies to any other school seeking registration as a non-government education provider.

I will just reflect on the prospect of a change of Commonwealth Government in respect to education policy, which is something I look forward to very much. Because one of the difficulties for the government school system and also for the independent and Catholic school systems right across the board has been the abandonment by the Commonwealth of a proper approach to allow the various school systems to make plans into the future for their various constituencies. That has led to inefficiencies, not only in this State but also in the various States of the Commonwealth. Generally speaking, the Commonwealth has adopted an opportunistic and, I believe, ideologically biased perspective—quite perversely on its part—against public education. That has led to government and independent schools being placed in a position where it is much more difficult to plan the acquisition of property and to plan where the demographics that might be relevant to their particular stream of schooling will occur.

I can only assume that the prospective applicants in this case are guessing as to what will happen with the development of the area and where in the long-term people of the Muslim faith might reside. But I have no idea what is in their minds and I can only speculate. The proper basis of Commonwealth funding for government, independent and Catholic schools, as existed prior to the election of the Howard Government and as existed during the period of the Hawke and Keating governments, and even during the period of the Fraser government, was to consider all these issues of planning before new schools are established.

What is in the minds of members of the Quranic Society, particularly in relation to the future demographics of the Camden area, is not a matter for me. I believe the protest meetings that were called were, at least in a public sense, couched in terms of concerns around planning and traffic issues, and that is obviously a matter for the Minister for Planning and the various local government authorities involved. I can only speculate about the other matters. However, I look forward with relish to Stephen Smith becoming the Commonwealth Minister so that once again we can have proper collaboration between the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments—and particularly between this Government and the Commonwealth Government—and the independent and Catholic school systems on future planning.