Page 2612 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 8 August 1990
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MR HUMPHRIES: I want to quote this and I will let Opposition members guess where it comes from:
There is no doubt the rationalisation must proceed because I think there are structural problems and structural inefficiencies within the Department of Education and the Arts. Unless steps are taken very quickly to address those structural deficiencies, we will never get at the core of the problem. My own view is that throwing money at education is not the way to solve the problem.
Can you guess who said that?
Mr Wood: I will agree with that, there is nothing wrong with that statement. I do not know who said it, but it is quite a sound statement.
MR HUMPHRIES: You cannot agree with it! Let us see whether you think the rest of it is sound:
If we have a basic structural problem to start with, no amount of money will solve it. I believe we have a duty to the taxpayers to make sure they are receiving the best value. I also believe we have a duty to the children to make sure they are receiving the best education, and as far as I am concerned they go hand in hand ... With education it is impossible to separate resources - both human and financial - from educational outcomes, and I hope they have grasped the concept during the debate. It is really quite clear that, with a reduction of about -
this might give it away -
12,000 students in the state system since 1980, there is a disproportionate level of resources - again of both human and financial - going to small schools, and those small schools cannot provide the breadth of educational opportunities that is required without an even greater proportion of those limited resources.
Mr Moore: What absolute nonsense!
MR HUMPHRIES: That may be nonsense, but that comes from Mr Peter Patmore who is the Labor Minister for Education and the Arts and also Attorney-General in the Government of Tasmania. That was his view and it is also the view, I suspect, of a great many other governments around this country, both Liberal and Labor. I also want to quote from Mr Michael Field, the Premier of Tasmania. He said:
Structural changes at any time - - -
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