Page 349 - Week 03 - Thursday, 1 June 1989
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those in the arts community would want that to occur, and they would want the ACT Government to support it. The coverage of industrial organisations representing employees in the existing institutions should not be prejudiced as a result of the amalgamation. I think it a very important issue that, if any amalgamation were to take place, it should be smoothly implemented.
We also believe that the governance and management arrangements for the amalgamated body, or the new body, should include representatives of the ACT, appropriate staff associations, unions and students to make sure that there is an element of ownership of the new organisation by all those bodies and the people of the ACT.
The territorial functions of the new body should be transferred to the ACT Government, of course, because of its responsibility to deliver for the people of the ACT. I hope that the members of the proposed committee consider all of those matters which I have raised in coming to a decision on the amalgamation, and hopefully this Assembly will be able to endorse unanimously the way forward for the ANU and the CCAE. I support the proposal put forward by Mr Humphries.
MR WHALAN (Minister for Industry, Employment and Education) (11.41): This consideration of a select committee to consider the proposed amalgamation of the Australian National University, the Canberra College of Advanced Education and now the Canberra Institute of the Arts involves a very important question of future directions for higher education in the ACT. The committee inquiry would enable careful consideration of the issues. This approach is preferred to what I would describe as the knee-jerk reaction of the withdrawn motion which would have committed us to a firm position today. In particular, it enables an opportunity to develop an understanding of the rationale for the Commonwealth Government's new policy on higher education. Of no less importance is a clear identification of where the ACT interests lie in respect of possible future arrangements for higher education in the Territory.
I state quite clearly that these interests are not simply those that are asserted by those currently and directly involved in higher education institutions. These participants certainly have an important perspective but we do need to be aware that their closeness can cloud their vision. Their advice is thus a necessary but not sufficient input into our determination of our higher education policy.
Let me return to the background to the Commonwealth Government's policy. In December 1987 the Commonwealth Government initiated a process of consultations on future directions for Australian higher education in a context where it was clear that the former binary system of universities and colleges of advanced education had broken
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