Page 3638 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 16 October 1990
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The problem with the Opposition on this issue is that its members are so destitute of an issue they are trying to beat this one up, and they are going to keep beating it up and beating it up and beating it up long after the population and the parents and the children and everybody else have written it off as being a non-issue. They are absolutely destitute of ideas, Mr Speaker. This must be about the fifth time that they have brought this matter up as a matter of public importance, and where is the public? Where is the public that this is directed to? Not only is there no public, there is no media either. So, it is about time they woke up to themselves and decided to use the time of this Assembly for some useful purpose instead of this great beat-up.
The proposition is that we are somehow destroying the social fabric of Canberra by closing half a dozen schools. If we are destroying the social fabric of Canberra, the Labor Government in Victoria is literally decimating theirs; absolutely destroying it. Yet that seems all right. We do not hear them coming out and criticising the Victorian Government for what they are doing to the schools; it is only here, where we are closing only seven schools. This is made out to be a major issue, far transcending anything that has ever happened in the ACT or anywhere else in Australia. It is a beat-up. Mr Wood knows it; Mr Moore knows it; and everybody is getting heartily sick of it.
The general assertions seem to be that, firstly, the Government does not understand the social consequences and, secondly, it is not interested in them. These are absolute rubbish. Mr Moore keeps reporting the OECD report as though he has some secret that only he is privy to. The Government has read the OECD report, we understand the arguments just as well as he does, and to keep bringing up the OECD report as though it is somehow going to make us change our minds about the things that have to be done in this Territory represents the fact that those opposite completely misunderstand the situation and they do not want to face up to the realities of the world that they live in.
First of all, on this question of whether we understand the social implications; of course, we do. If you read the terms of reference for Mr Hugh Hudson, quite clearly one of his terms of reference is to analyse the social and economic implications of the school closures. We want him specifically to look at them. We have looked at them and we have made a judgment, but in response to some public concern we are prepared to have an independent arbitrator review what we have done and tell us whether our assumptions and our conclusions on these matters are correct.
Mr Wood: You have ignored the advice you were given.
MR KAINE: We did not ignore anything, Mr Wood. You can continue to assert it, but that does not make it true. We have not ignored anything.
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