Page 2716 - Week 09 - Thursday, 9 August 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
the information that was clearly provided by public servants, I have highlighted some of the mistakes and you can see there are simply hundreds of them. It is totally inadequate. What it means is that the actual report itself is not worth bunkum because it relies on a tremendous amount of data that is clearly shown to be totally and absolutely inadequate.
But even worse than this is the total lack of ethics in publishing that report and not including in it the minority report of Mr Ellis who was on that task force. This is an absolute indictment of the inadequacy of your department and I think it is time, Mr Humphries, that you looked to the upper echelons of your department and went through it with a scythe. What we have seen recently is a tremendous number of actions throughout the ACT and in our schools that are a result of that department.
Let me read to you from Mr Ellis' minority report, from the section that he calls, "Secrecy".
It is a cause of great concern to me that much of the proceedings of the PTF will remain unknown to most Canberra people. PTF meetings were originally open, to the extent that minutes were taken and circulated and members could discuss issues with their organisations.
He then goes on to talk about the secrecy and the lack of information that is available to the public.
Let me remind you that this education system was an education system of parents, of the people, for their children. What we have now, and it has happened since Dr Willmot took over administration of the Education Department as it is now, is something that has got nothing to do with parents at all. It is an administration of bureaucrats and public servants who hide behind the information that they are prepared to keep to themselves. The results of this are the sorts of decisions made by your Government about closures of schools and your announced closures of preschools. If all the information was available to the public it could be challenged, but instead we have an entirely inadequate department that you, if you had any guts as a Minister, would take to with a scythe.
Let me use a specific example. Let me say this about the department. I have no doubt that in that department there are many well-intentioned and very competent officers, but I also have no doubt that their hands are tied and their own reputations are sullied by those officers who have not got any idea of openness and dealing in a frank and straightforward way. Let me say that in saying that I am not specifically referring in those points to any person that I have named here today.
MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .