Page 2869 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 15 August 1990
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whatever it is -
seven and a half minutes.
MR SPEAKER: Order! The Assembly will come to order. Mr Humphries is quite entitled to move that he be given an extension of time.
MR HUMPHRIES: Of three minutes, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: The question is that Mr Humphries be given an extension of time.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I think it is worth reflecting on the sorts of implications that would flow on to the education budget if it were not possible to achieve these savings of between $2m and $3m a year by closing schools. I think it is worth tabling in the Assembly a rough idea of what we would be looking at if we were to find ourselves having to make those cuts elsewhere. I think it is fair enough to attribute those cuts equally to all the programs in the education department to see what kinds of implications they would have. I want to refer to some of those figures.
To make a saving of $3m in a full year, for example, we would be looking at cutting about $1.04m out of primary schools, about $800,000 out of high schools and about $483,000 out of secondary colleges.
Mr Moore: Why? You can do it in a different way. You do not have to do it that way.
MR HUMPHRIES: Because, Mr Moore, the alternatives are not there.
Mr Moore: The alternatives are there. I told you what they are, but you did not take any notice.
MR HUMPHRIES: You tell me when you speak in this debate what the alternatives are. That equates in teaching numbers to something like 15 secondary college teachers, 25 high school teachers, 33 primary school teachers and a number of other positions elsewhere - a total of 93 teachers across the system. That is the alternative to making a saving of $3m.
Ms Follett: Table the document.
MR HUMPHRIES: I intend to table the document. Those are the alternatives. I challenge those opposite to spell out the alternatives. What are they going to do? I know what their answer would be. It would be, "Oh, we would not cut education at all. We would find savings elsewhere". If you ask them where they are going to make the savings they cannot tell you.
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