Page 2870 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 15 August 1990
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Mr Wood: Look at our budget last year.
Mr Moore: Have a look at the roads around the place.
MR HUMPHRIES: You did not make enough saving there to sustain this problem, Mr Wood.
Mr Duby: We are spending less this year than we did last year.
MR HUMPHRIES: That is right. So where does the solution come? It has not been shown. The alternatives are not there. I table the following paper:
Schools program - Table of budget estimates for Government Schooling.
I think, Mr Speaker, it is obvious that those opposite will continue to play to their audience that wants to hear them say that we do not need to close schools, but they know in their heart of hearts that the alternatives just are not there and that this Government is taking a sensible economic decision in line with previous governments in this Territory and governments elsewhere in this country. Until they show otherwise, I think that the onus should be on the Government to continue its program.
MR STEVENSON (12.10): Mr Speaker, the citizens of Canberra have the right and the great desire to have an inquiry held into school closures. It has been on the notice paper. I have implored all members of this Assembly to allow the matter to proceed, and it is unfortunate that we are nearly running out of time for that to happen. To allow some time for the matter to be debated, I move:
That the question be now put.
Question resolved in the negative.
DR KINLOCH (12.11): Mr Speaker, may I welcome you back. If the original motion on the green paper had been put up, I would have voted no. Why? Because the Bill had internal political and constitutional problems - the same ones that were debated in the Parliament of Tasmania. So I would not have been in favour of that. It has nothing to do with schools. It would have been about the internal nature of the Bill. Mr Wood's present motion, however, is much simpler and more direct. Bill, would you mind restating it quickly for me?
Mr Wood: That this Assembly asserts that no schools should close.
DR KINLOCH: There are obvious problems with such a sweeping motion that no schools should close. When? 2050, et cetera? But I do not wish to engage in rhetorical debate. I would like to accept the motion as given from
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