Page 939 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 March 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Despite Thailand's proximity to Australia, its popularity as a tourist destination and the rapid socioeconomic development of the country, Australians are largely unfamiliar with the culture and language of the Thai people. Thailand is the only member of the Association of South East Asian Nations which does not have at least one of its languages taught in Australian schools. Korea is now Australia's fourth largest trading partner, with a rapidly expanding two-way trade that totalled $2.5 billion in 1988. Like Thai, however, the language is taught in no Australian schools.
These projects undertaken by the Department of Education can only strengthen the position of the ACT as a tourist destination and as host to the many ambassadors and business representatives who visit our city each year. In this respect our growing number of students graduating with Asian languages will not only be of direct economic benefit to the ACT but also benefit the nation.
MR SPEAKER: I call Mr Collaery.
Mrs Grassby: Oh, God, not another boring one!
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (9.54): I have just been reading a psychiatrist's report in relation to another matter, and it says that the state of excessive sleep is often induced by a fit of depression. I understand that the Opposition members are still getting over their loss, but they are waking up from their doze occasionally and making these odd noises.
This is an extremely important topic; it is worth a full comment in this Assembly, and I believe that the public of Canberra who read the Hansard will appreciate the interest shown by the members of the Alliance Government and others, and will view with appropriate disapprobation the views advanced by way of interjection by those who want to go home and leave this important topic alone.
I will address one aspect of the report only and I will not be long, I assure Mrs Grassby, so that she can get away. At page 33 the report refers to school performance review and development. A thorough approach, it suggests, requires a collection of information relating to, among other things, long-term outcomes, for example, as in post-school careers. My department has viewed with interest a report called "Leaving School in the ACT", a summary report that the Minister for Health Education and the Arts, my colleague Mr Humphries, released on Friday, 16 March 1990, at Dickson College.
I commend that report to educators and others who would be interested in the outcomes of education. In saying that, I do not suggest at all that the value of an education is gauged by what a young person secures by way of a job afterwards; it is much deeper than that. But I bring to the attention of members that that interesting survey
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .