Page 1815 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 30 May 1990
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His school - Spence school - took a very positive attitude nearly 12 months ago and recognised the fact that the ACT Government would have economic problems. Together with Melba school, it has submitted a proposal for a twin campus which - - -
Mr Moore: So you are feeling secure, are you?
MS MAHER: No, I am not, actually. The proposal will save the Government over $80,000. Holder High School is putting in a proposal. The community out there is responding to the discussion paper and some good submissions are coming back. The Government will not do anything until we get those submissions, analyse them and see what we come up with. Therefore, the community is having an opportunity to have its say.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (11.35): Mr Speaker, there is no doubt in the community's mind or in the minds of Opposition members that education in the ACT is under attack by the Liberal Government opposite. They might want to delude themselves that that is not the case, but it is.
The education system that the people of the ACT have known for years - some of us all our lives - and that has served the community so well, is being dismantled by the current Minister for Education. In fact, as we have heard today and we have heard repeatedly, Mr Humphries cannot tell us the savings that he expects to achieve, indeed even the target that he is going for, by this attack on the education system.
The ACT education system is highly respected throughout Australia. If you talk to people from any other State you will find that they envy our education system. It has the highest retention rate in Australia and it is unequalled in the percentage of students who go on to tertiary education. But of course all of that means absolutely nothing to the people opposite.
The ACT education system currently provides children with the environment in which their own personalities can fully develop and it gives them an education which gives them a chance to reach their full potential. We do at least have an obligation to offer our children a fulfilling future. Furthermore, a good education provides the ACT with a highly skilled work force. The Prime Minister has recently told us all of the need to create a clever nation. To date, the ACT has been at the forefront in providing the sorts of people that a clever nation needs.
But, Mr Speaker, what is important for the whole of the Australian economy is absolutely essential for the ACT. We do not have the primary and manufacturing industries that the other States have, so they will not be able to provide for our future. Our educated work force is, in fact, our greatest resource, and unless we continue to provide ourselves with an educated work force the ACT's future is bleak indeed.
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