Page 1393 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 1 May 1990
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MR HUMPHRIES: I can see, Mr Speaker, that there is considerable need for the Government to address problems of literacy in our community, since Mr Wood has obviously failed to carefully read and understand the article that appeared on the front page of the Canberra Times today. Mr Speaker, I did not say that the vacancy rate may be as low as 10,000. What I did say was that, even if the vacancy rate - the surplus places in our school system - were as low as 10,000, the Government - - -
Mr Wood: You were saying 13,000 in that context before.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Wood, if you listen patiently you will hear the answer.
Mr Wood: Why the change from one to the other?
MR HUMPHRIES: You will hear, Mr Wood. Mr Speaker, Mr Wood is obviously confused, and I will attempt to explain it very calmly and clearly to him. The figures available to the Government are from the school census that was conducted in March of this year. They are only two or so months old. Those figures point to some 13,500 empty or surplus school places in the ACT education system.
Mr Berry: Which schools?
MR HUMPHRIES: The schools range from preschools to secondary colleges - every level of schooling in our system in the ACT. That figure is current as of March this year. Of course, all the time those figures fluctuate. As the year goes on, students tend to leave the system and, as a result, in some ways there is the potential for that figure to increase beyond 13,000. However, the point that I was making, as reported in this morning's paper, was not that the figure has to be 13,000, 8,000, 12,000 or whatever before the Government will act.
Mr Wood: Yes, but you have changed the argued figure.
MR HUMPHRIES: No. The point, Mr Speaker, is simply that with such a large number of surplus school places within our system the Government cannot fail to act. We cannot sit by and let that large level of redundancy in our system continue to divert resources away from where they are most needed, and that is providing direct services to the students of the ACT. That is the point, Mr Speaker, and that is what this Government is going to do, irrespective of whether the figure is 10,000 or 20,000, and I am confident that it is somewhere in that range. The Government will be acting to ensure that the school system is responsive to the needs of the students within it, and that is what it is all about.
MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, I wish to ask a supplementary question. It is all very vague and becoming more and more vague. Will Mr Humphries agree that the figure -
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