Page 3483 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 19 September 1990
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your party. I have suggested previously that you look very carefully at the advice you get, because that is what is going to come out of the school closures issue and it will be further emphasised by this particular action of your Government.
Mr Humphries argued that the Opposition was dredging the bottom of the barrel to pull out a situation like this. No doubt oppositions will always be accused of this sort of thing, and I can certainly remember Mr Berry using similar lines to Mr Humphries about dredging the bottom of the barrel - it may not have been those words - when Government members were in opposition and Mr Berry was a Minister. So I really do not think that that sort of rhetoric gains a great deal for either side - and, of course, I enjoy having that shot at Mr Berry as much as I enjoy having it at Mr Humphries.
Large sacrifices are made by people who choose to send their children to private schools that cost them a great deal and it is understandable how those people feel. But it is also understandable how the general people in the community feel when they see a Government that has argued so hard and so strongly for taking land away from public education can turn around and give it to the private sector. It is hardly something that can be described as social justice.
MR JENSEN (3.56): Frankly, I am amazed, once again, that the Opposition would seek to raise this issue in political terms when the policies that are applicable to this issue have been long established and applied by governments of all political persuasions. Let me repeat that: by governments of all political persuasions. This includes governments of the Labor political persuasion. Such governments have also closed schools and have also sought to sell off land within the ACT. It is not just the Alliance Government that has had to consider this issue; it is also Labor governments not only in the ACT but throughout Australia that have come to this same problem and have expressed concern about these issues.
The policy in the ACT has been in place for many years and has been universally and evenly applied to a variety of organisations seeking to establish schools. Clearly, if these schools are registered and are obtaining financial assistance directly from the Commonwealth or the Territory, previous Commonwealth and Territory governments have been prepared to make a grant of land to establish the school. That is the point. It just amazes me. I am just amazed that the people opposite seem to think that what applied then should not apply now.
Mr Wood: You do not listen very well.
MR JENSEN: No, I listen very well, Mr Wood. I listened to some of your remarks and I will come to those in a minute. Members should be well aware, as the Chief Minister has
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