Page 2324 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 1 November 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
quoted in the Canberra Times as saying that her Government's support for preschool education was "unequivocal" because of its positive role in children's schooling. She went on:
I hope that now we have settled some of the difficulties of the past year -
referring, of course, to the $6 preschool fee fight -
we can find constructive ways to work together to keep our pre-school system a strong one.
I wonder, Mr Speaker, whether the Chief Minister will contribute to this debate. If she does, I would like her to explain how the sorry saga I outlined earlier can possibly constitute constructive ways of working together.
As I mentioned, Mr Speaker, I will be moving a motion at the end of this to indicate clearly what it is that the Government ought to do in this regard. I believe the Government should not be allowed to establish an unacceptable standard of behaviour in its dealings with community groups. The motion I will be moving will bring it to task for its inept and deceptive handling of the preschool closure debate, and I look forward to the support of other members in this chamber.
DR KINLOCH (3.57): Firstly, I thank Mr Humphries for his long, complex, interesting and well-stated comments which I think are especially welcome from a disinterested bachelor. I speak as one who had three children at Ainslie, at Baker Gardens preschool, and who much appreciated that experience for our family, both the children and parents.
I would like to begin with the question of consultation, which Mr Humphries has already raised. I have been assured by one of the leaders of the preschool rally outside the Assembly last week that one of their problems has been the lack of consultation. That was the message I received from talking to a number of people who were standing out in the courtyard.
I well recognise that members of the Schools Authority staff have considered the matter of the closing of several preschools and the elimination of several preschool jobs. They were probably under orders to find ways to cut costs, given a range of such cuts across the board. Possibly those Macarthur House administrators are now looking at ways to consult parents at Cook, Weetangera, Page, Scullin, Macquarie and Hawker, but such consultation may come too late. I hope it will not be too late, and I look forward to hearing from members of the Government about that, that it will not be too late. So, no matter what are the rights and wrongs of each individual situation at each school, that consultation must now take place.
I do recognise that, if a preschool were down to one, two or three children, there would be a need for revised arrangements, but that is not what we see.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .