Page 1266 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 2021
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MS BERRY: I cannot hear anyway; so go for your life, Mrs Kikkert. I just think you have to be careful about making comparisons across jurisdictions because of the unique nature of the ACT specifically. What I am interested in—
Mr Hanson: On a point of order, the question was very specifically about whether the Auditor-General, the ANU, the Australia Institute, Victoria University and others are wrong when they say that ACT schools are underperforming.
MADAM SPEAKER: Yes, I know what the question was and she referred to a number of reports. I cannot direct the minister on how to answer the question, but she also went on about how you measure different data sets. So the response was in order.
MS BERRY: Madam Speaker, I might just finish off with the last 30 seconds just to say that all of those organisations are using the same data. In my view—and on the advice I have—that data is flawed because the comparisons are unfair.
MRS KIKKERT: Minister, it is time to commission an independent review into the ACT education system?
Mr Parton: You’d get teachers to do it, I reckon.
MS BERRY: In that moment of time of that question I did hear Mr Parton’s interjection there about the teachers. Yes, I would absolutely ask the advice of teaching professionals because they are best placed to provide that information. Why would you not ask the advice of the teacher professionals who are there in the classroom every day—
Opposition members interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Members, please! Allow the minister to answer the question.
MS BERRY: to provide advice on how our schools are performing, particularly our public schools, which seem to be the focus of the questions here today, around whether they are performing or not. In my view—
Mr Parton: On a point of order on relevance, the question was regarding an independent review of the ACT education system, which has nothing to do with my interjection.
MADAM SPEAKER: Therefore, I would advise you not to interject and I would encourage the minister not to respond to an interjection. You have the floor for a minute longer.
Mr Rattenbury: So not just interjecting; you were irrelevantly interjecting!
MS BERRY: Yes, good point, Mr Rattenbury. The interjections often do not have any pertinence but what I would say is that our schools are constantly assessed using the national school improvement tools, which is an independent assessment.
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