Page 1088 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
That means is that people in the position of Mrs Le need not take their families all the way out to Woden because emergency facilities will be nearer to them at all hours of the day or night than they are at the present time. This redevelopment will also improve access to the vast majority of North Canberra residents. Contrary to popular conception, in terms of travelling time, most people in north Canberra are closer to Calvary than they are to Royal Canberra. With roads such as Belconnen Way and Ginninderra Drive providing ready access to Calvary from north Canberra I understand that most north Canberra residents will experience a decrease in travelling time being serviced by Calvary rather than by Royal Canberra.
The suburbs clustered around Royal Canberra will still be subject to substantially lower travelling times to Calvary than most Canberrans are, and will be subject to and benefit from the establishment of a principal hospital with the higher level of health services that represents. These facts, Mr Speaker, highlight how short-sighted in many ways the Labor Government's redevelopment plan was. The fact is Labor was willing to condemn Canberra to less than the best health service so that it could keep a single hospital open.
Non-government Schools
MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, I direct a question to the Minister for Education, and I direct Mr Humphries' attention to an answer to a dorothy dixer on 22 March when he quoted the Chairman of the Association of Independent Schools, Father O'Kelly, to assert that the Federal Government's funding policies for non-government schools were sectarian in nature. Is the Minister aware that the 15,000 member Independent Teachers Association has accused Father O'Kelly of representing elite enclaves in the education community; and further, that they have said that Father O'Kelly's attitude was denial of social justice principles and deserves to be roundly condemned by all those committed to the principle of equity in Australian education? Will the Minister now withdraw his charges of sectarianism on the part of the Federal Government and agree that its funding policies are based on assessments of need?
MR HUMPHRIES: No, Mr Speaker, I will not. The fact is that Father O'Kelly spoke for a large number of people in independent schools in Australia. The fact is that he expressed a view, a concern which is not isolated, which is widespread and which I believe deserved airing and which I think still stands, notwithstanding anything that has happened between now and then. The fact that some elements or some sectors of the independent school body - - -
MR WOOD: Yes, 15,000 of them.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .