Page 1852 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 30 May 1990
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Mr Humphries: It's a gross generalisation.
MS FOLLETT: That is a reputable report, Mr Humphries. It does not suit your agenda and it does not suit the agenda of your Government. It is nevertheless a reputable and well researched report which has looked at over 400 municipal governments to draw its conclusions.
Mr Speaker, the proposals that the Government has recently put before the ACT will absolutely devastate the ACT's economy. They will reduce jobs - Mr Kaine has made that quite clear - and they will also reduce public services. They are an attack on the wages and the working conditions of the people of Canberra. The ACT economy, I believe, is on the brink of recession, and the current Government's policies are all that is needed to push it over the brink.
Most disturbing at the current time, Mr Speaker, is the Government's attack on the ACT public education system. I will say it again, as I have said it on every occasion that I have had a chance to debate this issue: the Labor Party supports the neighbourhood school system. We believe that system best meets the educational needs of Canberra's children, and we believe that it has many other important social and economic effects as well.
We believe that continued funding for the neighbourhood school system should reflect the Canberra community's priority, which it has clearly expressed, for education. As we now know, the Liberal Government's proposals, with the full support of the Residents Rally, for school closures are not justified on budget grounds and are a reflection of the Liberal ideological outlook. School closures, we now know, are simply not necessary. They have not been justified in any of the debate that has taken place on that issue.
There are a great many reasons, which appear to have escaped the Government totally, why neighbourhood schools are important. From the point of view of the children's education, the issues range from the safety of children walking to and from school to questions of equity for school children from different backgrounds. It is quite clear that the neighbourhood school operates at a much more human level. Neighbourhood schools are able to cater for the needs of children in a particular area. Schools that I have visited, such as the Griffith school which has a particular enrolment of Aboriginal children and children from a non-English speaking background, cater to the particular needs of children in their area. These neighbourhood schools are able to offer programs targeted to meet those students' needs.
The closure of neighbourhood schools will also have a grave impact on the opportunities available to children for equal education regardless of their background. The experience elsewhere shows that, if the system of local catchments and
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