NB We will have to wait till early next year to get rid of ths lot of shirkers
Keneally reneges on Firth’s unflued gas heater promise
Media release: 28 July 2010
The Keneally government looks set to renege on a promise by the NSW Education Minister Verity Firth to replace unflued gas heaters in NSW public schools, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
Greens NSW MP John Kaye said: “Parents care little for breaches of cabinet processes and fights between ministers and premiers. What they want is clean air in their children’s classrooms.
“Yesterday every parent in public education was promised an end to unflued gas heaters and the damage they cause to their children’s health. Today all they have is a cabinet process and the public humiliation of the minister who made the promise. Teachers, students and parents have every right to feel betrayed and angry.
“The Premier is playing politics with the health of the state’s young people. Even if Education Minister Verity Firth jumped the gun before a cabinet determination, the key issue is getting rid of the 55,000 unflued gas heaters and the fumes they are dumping into classrooms around the state.
“Minister Firth’s process might not have conformed to Premier Keneally’s ministerial standards but she was 100 per cent right in saying these heaters have to go. The politics cannot be allowed to get in the way of the science.
“Verity Firth’s promise to eradicate unflued gas heaters must not be allowed to be consumed in a spat between her and her premier,” Dr Kaye said.
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455