Page 928 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 March 1990
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term that was used by the ACT Schools Authority for some years was "parents as partners". That is how they were working. But now we have a culture of service which is dealing with the others as clients. The whole change in tone is, "We decide what is good for you, and we look after you as our clients". That is a very major shift from the excellent system of community consultation, working with the community and all the sorts of motherhood statements that members provided to the public as part of their election campaigns.
Yet the Minister for Health, Education and the Arts particularly must look very carefully at this whole culture of service notion because it is taking away from the ACT that combination of educationalists and parents working together for the best system for students. Let me give you a clear example of it. The members of the culture of service working party are Max Sawatzki, chairperson from the Schools Authority; Phil Sadler, Schools Authority; David Southern, Schools Authority, Elizabeth McKenzie, Schools Authority; Kalle Peljo, principal - I wonder how my pronunciation went.
Mr Stefaniak: It probably was not too crash hot.
MR MOORE: Exactly. The other members are Bettye Pearce, Schools Authority, and Gwen McNeill, Schools Authority. They are all from the Schools Authority. This working party is to provide to parents an indication of what the Schools Authority decides it will do with the schools.
That is a major shift; it is a major problem. It is something against which each one of us in this Assembly and the Assembly as a whole should work. It is not positive in the way that Bill Stefaniak presented it. It is a very negative change. It is a step backwards. It is a step back to the New South Wales system that preceded the ACT system. In South Australia in the late 1960s - - -
Mr Humphries: Can you tell us why?
MR MOORE: Because it is not working with parents, which is the sort of thing on which you went to the polls.
Mr Humphries: I cannot see why.
MR MOORE: Because the departmental officers are deciding what is going to happen and then telling parents and teachers. There is no attempt at community participation; it is moving it away from it. I am explaining this to the Minister for Education particularly, who has interjected and said, "I do not see why". With a culture of service, when we talk about people as clients we have an entirely different relationship with them. That is what language is about. Instead of the old term, which was "parents as partners" - - -
Mr Humphries: It is not a substitution for that.
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