Page 2867 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 15 August 1990
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could save the $2m that we claim we could save by closing schools, it would not alter by one iota the position taken by those opposite. They would continue to say that we should not close schools, even though clear economic benefits would flow to the people of the Territory by doing so.
Mr Moore: The figures would be challenged - that is right - because you cannot show what the economic benefit will be.
MR HUMPHRIES: We will show that in the course of time, and when we do you will have to eat your words if that is the crux of your argument. But of course you will not say that because it is not. Closures are being opposed for political reasons.
Mr Moore: It has never been shown to work.
MR HUMPHRIES: They are being shown to work all over this country, Mr Moore. If you do not realise that, you are more of an economic troglodyte than I thought you were.
We know that decisions of this kind have to be made. We face the alternatives that were faced by the previous Government. We could have been cutting teacher numbers. We could have been increasing class sizes as our response to these problems. But we are not going to do that. We are going to maintain teacher numbers. We are not going to increase class sizes. We are going to sustain those things because they are important to education. That is what matters to education in this Territory, not the buildings from which education is conducted. The particular locations of schools is not a critical factor in the way in which education is provided. It is the quality of classroom teaching that really matters. That is what this Government wants to preserve and protect, and that is what we will protect by taking these steps.
If those opposite want to say that we should not close schools, it is up to them to spell out the alternatives, and they have utterly and completely failed to do so. They have not once entered in this debate a single argument as to what they would do if they were in the same position. The reason is very simple.
Mr Berry: You have not given us the reasons yet. Give us the reasons. Give us the figures, the hidden figures.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Berry is twitching over there. The reason is very simple: they cannot. They simply do not know what the arguments are. Even Mr Moore has put forward an alternative argument as to how we might make some money. At least he has some integrity. I give 9 out of 10 for integrity for Mr Moore.
Mr Duby: No, 6.
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