Page 1991 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 5 June 1990
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School Transport
MRS GRASSBY: My question is to Mr Humphries. What does Mr Humphries believe is a reasonable distance for five- and six-year-olds to walk to schools?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, Mrs Grassby is asking me for my opinion on the distance that a five- or six-year-old ought to be able to walk to school. I do not pretend to be an expert on the distance that a five- or six-year-old child might walk in any direction to any particular activity or place. I am aware that at the present time the guidelines applicable for the provision of school buses indicate that a child is expected to walk if that child lives within two kilometres of his or her primary school.
As far as I am aware, that was a guideline in place under the previous Follett Labor Government. To my knowledge, there has been no change or adjustment to that since this Government came into office. I suppose, therefore, that I have inherited an expectation on the part of the education system that a child of five or six should be able to walk two kilometres to get to school.
Grants Commission
MR JENSEN: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister. I refer the Chief Minister to a statement made by Mrs Kelly in a radio interview this morning, with regard to matters raised in the assets and public debt report tabled last week. She indicated that this should be referred to the Grants Commission for examination for special revenue assistance. Can the Chief Minister advise how long the Grants Commission would take to report and whether this procedure would necessarily be in time to overcome the ACT's financial difficulties in the 1990-91 budget? Further, what would be the result for Canberra if the commission could not report before the ACT's 1990-91 budget?
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, Mr Jensen's question is an interesting one because I did hear part of what Mrs Kelly said on the Pru Goward show this morning. It seemed pretty obvious to me from what I heard that Ms Kelly has not the faintest idea of how the Commonwealth Grants Commission does its work or what its terms of reference are. The fact is, Mr Speaker, that the terms of reference of the Commonwealth Grants Commission in its normal annual assessment of special purpose and general purpose grants confine it to recurrent expenditure. It does not deal with capital - yet Ms Kelly was talking about the report on the assets and public debt of the Territory. They are capital items, and those matters do not formally fall within the purview of the Commonwealth Grants Commission.
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