Page 3340 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 18 September 1990
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Treasurer has not so much manipulated his figures as manipulated his words. The budget papers are quite clear on what the costs of school closures will be, on your figures - not necessarily the accepted figures - but the words are different. The tactic was successful, of course, because when the budget was brought down the media generally reported that there was $1m a year to be saved through school closures. That is what is written here; that is what they accepted. I suppose it justifies the convolution that goes on to support that.
But, in fact, if you look at figures 5.3 and 6.1 of supplementary paper No. 3 you will see that the cost of school closures this year is $2m. You are down the tube to the extent of $2m. It is as clear as that. The schools reshaping program estimated savings in 1990-91 amount to $1,010,000. The one-off costs in table 6.1 amount to $2,989,000 - a difference close enough to $2m. So, there is no saving from school closures in this year; and again I stress that these are the Government's figures, not necessarily the agreed figures.
It is true to say that in the education program, whichever program number or particular title it has, there will be a saving because the one-off costs are being allocated to various other departments, to other agencies. So, it will not be a cost on the education program and therefore the Government can claim, quite wrongly, with some measure of deceit, that it is a saving this financial year. That is simply not the case. I regret that the words were printed in the media and the situation as it truly is was obscured.
Let us look at just one aspect of the imposition on parents from that proposal for school closures, and it is a doubling of disadvantage. You are closing schools in certain areas, and I note the budget papers say that you propose bus services equivalent to eight single journeys. I suppose that means four new bus services of a return nature. I do not know whether there are circumstances where you take kids to school but then do not take them home; there may be, but I could not imagine them. But you are providing four new bus services.
Mr Kaine: There is a heck of a lot the other way round, where we do not take them to school but we do take them home.
MR WOOD: I know. I know that everything is not quite simple. I have been there and I have done that. But there are to be four new equivalent bus services for all these school closures. You have indicated that some thousands of children are going to be affected, and that is all you will provide for them. Not only that; because they have to drive further you are going to make them pay more by reason of that increase in petrol taxes. It really is a difficulty for the parents. You are adding onto it at all times.
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