Page 2177 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 6 June 1990
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Assembly chamber today children from St Bede's School in Red Hill. I live in Red Hill and it is a great pleasure to have the very well behaved children from that suburb here today in the gallery. I welcome them on behalf of members of the Assembly.
I answer Mr Wood's question by saying that I acknowledge, and I have acknowledged from the outset, that the Government needs to justify the savings it proposes to make from any school closures.
Mr Wood: Yes, but before, not after.
MR HUMPHRIES: Certainly it is true that the Government needs to produce as accurate figures as possible on the sorts of savings it can expect to make from the closure of schools. In fact, I indicated yesterday to members of the media that I was at present preparing figures on the sorts of savings one would generally make from school closures.
Obviously, those figures are very loose. They are not accurate figures because you cannot produce accurate figures until you have details of particular schools, particular configurations. However, that information will be made available, and it will be made available to members of the Opposition.
It is also true that detailed work will have to be done on particular projections of savings once actual schools are named and a plan for closure is established. I think it is unhelpful to think in terms of what we can lay on the table at this point about how much money will flow from particular decisions. It does not advance the argument, but at the same time it does not mean that the Government is not doing or is not prepared to do the necessary groundwork to ensure that the figures on which it proceeds are entirely accurate.
MR WOOD: I ask a supplementary question. I thank the Minister because at last we have some acknowledgement of what we have been asking for some time now - that is, the necessity to provide these figures. I am very grateful for Mr Humphries' indication. Will he confirm that, following the examination of material provided by Dr Perkins, he is reviewing his opinion and his figures on costs?
MR HUMPHRIES: "Review" is probably a rather ambiguous word to use in this context. We are certainly - - -
Mr Wood: You just changed your mind?
MR HUMPHRIES: No, we are not changing our minds. We are scrutinising the assumptions on which the Education Department has proceeded to date. I know that process has involved, and I am sure will continue to involve, Dr Perkins and the academics from the Australian National University whom she has enlisted in that process.
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