Page 2745 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 14 August 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR ACTING SPEAKER: Perhaps if we could stop a few interjections members could answer questions. I think you were concluding, Mr Humphries.
MR HUMPHRIES: I was in the last third of my answer, Mr Acting Speaker. The Government of Victoria is consolidating 600 schools which, incidentally, is a considerably larger proportion of government schooling in Victoria than the ACT Government is affecting in its decision to consolidate schools. I think it is also worth referring in part to the efforts in Tasmania where a proposal to close 27 schools was announced last year by Mr Peter Patmore, the Minister in that State. This was frustrated by the Tasmanian Opposition and other parties, and now that system is looking to sack several hundred teachers from the system as a way of saving money. It seems that the stalinists opposite are the only people in this country who do not accept that money needs to be saved in education systems generally.
School Closures - Weetangera
MRS GRASSBY: I would also like to ask a question of the Minister for Education: given Dr Kinloch's public statements that he was not in possession of all the facts about the Weetangera school closure, what actions have you taken to provide the full information to your Executive Deputy?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Acting Speaker, I sincerely doubt whether the details of communication between myself and members of the Government are really a matter for questions in question time. I do not ask you what fights you have engaged in with your colleagues. Even when you were in government I did not ask you what interfactional rivalries had developed between you and your colleagues. I can assure you that my relationship with Dr Kinloch is considerably warmer than yours would be with Ms Follett and Mr Berry at the present time. I can assure you that Dr Kinloch has - - -
Mrs Grassby: My relationships with them are very warm; they do not keep me in the mushroom club, I can tell you that.
MR HUMPHRIES: That would be a terrible fate for you, Mrs Grassby, I would not dream of wishing that upon anybody. Mr Acting Speaker, the communication between members of the Government is very good. Any information that Dr Kinloch may have felt that he did not have, I believe he has now. I do not believe there is any ground for wishing for any improvement in these arrangements because they are, in fact, very good.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .