Page 2929 - Week 10 - Thursday, 16 August 1990
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dishonesty that is rarely seen. Regrettably Mr Humphries has only a destructive vision for education in the Territory.
I will say that I respect Mr Humphries' determination - courage, if you like. He has fronted up to a great number of community meetings; he has faced those who oppose him in the community. So he has gained some respect for his willingness to do that. He has not avoided the people, let me say that. But he has avoided the issues. He has refused to debate the issues. Facing the people is one thing; but to talk, to engage in a real debate, is something else.
He has now well developed his strategy. Simply put, he will say, "We have to save money. I will tell you how we are going to do that. I will give you the details and the justification later on". At the start I suppose that was fair enough. He did not have that information; he did not know it. So he was being honest when he said, "I will have to tell you later". Page after page of Hansard, week after week of debate, tell us this: he accepted a proposition at face value. That was his second disastrous failure. He did not get on top of the specific issues, and he has been caught out because he does not know enough; because he did not challenge the advice that was given to him.
He did not, as a Minister should, inform and satisfy himself about the details. His colleagues know that. Did the Minister, back in March, provide them with details of careful planning for this dramatic change? Did he give them sound justification? Did he give them supporting documentation? Of course not. If Government members knew then what they know now, they would have said, "No". They wish they could go back in time to retract some of the authority that they gave to him.
Do they yet have the detail that is necessary? One of the less satisfactory features of the Minister is his obstinacy. He has been forced to retreat to this bunker of "It has to be; we have to save money; I will tell you the how and the why later on". He has never set out to get on top of the issues. As a result of that he has had to face what I see clearly as the humiliation of other people showing him how he should do his job. Long ago in this parliament we said to him, "Where is your planning?". Bear in mind that it is not a simple change he is proposing. He wanted originally to close 25 schools. I will tell you a story of how 25 was decided upon one day.
Ms Maher: Tell us now.
MR WOOD: No, I will stick to my script, thank you. Let me tell you, however, how he has been humiliated by other people and been told how to do the job that he does not know. Let me quote, from the Hansard of 6 June, part of Mr Humphries' reply in response to my asking him for information and how he can justify what he is doing. We were talking about Dr Perkins' figures, and he said:
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