Page 1387 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 1 May 1990
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MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I thank Mrs Nolan for her question. Let me say at the outset that the Government does not intend to close 51 preschools, as alleged by Dr Thompson, nor does it have any intention to close 51 per cent of preschools, as another reporter put to me later that week.
As the Assembly is aware, the Government is determined to rationalise education services to ensure the best possible value for education expenditure. In this context, the Government is concerned that there are some 2,000 excess preschool places in the ACT. The system with our commitment to community consultation is that the preschool task force is currently examining a wide range of options for the future provision of preschool services in the ACT. The task force consists of representatives of community organisations involved with preschool services and officers of my department.
A number of options are being considered. They include: consolidation of preschool services into single or multiple unit preschools; decreased linkages with primary schools; alternative preschool operating hours; increased linkages with other child-care services; a regional cluster model whereby the preschool priority enrolment areas will be modelled on a high school enrolment area and preschool places will be offered within that area; and a possible combination of the above.
Of course, the task force will present its final report to the Government when it is concluded. Dr Thompson is involved in the Page preschool parents association, which is represented directly on the task force and which will therefore have an input into these recommendations. I am confident that his speculation, however, about the closure of 51 preschools is idle. Since the ACT has only 78 preschools in total, I would think that a recommendation to close 51 of them would constitute a wholesale destruction of the preschool system, and that certainly is not what this Government is about.
Ainslie Transfer Station
MRS GRASSBY: Can the Minister for Finance and Urban Services tell the Assembly the amount of waste delivered to the Ainslie Transfer Station; the proportion of recycling carried out there compared to the tips; the number of individual visits to the transfer station per week; and the number of trips from the transfer station required to remove waste per week?
MR DUBY: I thank Mrs Grassby for the question. There were a number of specific questions in it. I am not sure whether I wrote them all down. The first question, I believe, was about the amount of waste that was disposed of at the Ainslie Transfer Station; is that correct?
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