Page 4069 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 24 October 1990
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MR KAINE (Chief Minister) (3.42): Mr Deputy Speaker, I was waiting for Mr Stevenson to get to the point of the linkage between his motion and ACT schools - and it took until the last 30 seconds of his speech to get to it. I think that that indicates the tenuous nature of the linkage between the two matters. I do not intend to engage in the debate about the Commonwealth Government's decision to fund certain work in South Africa. That is its prerogative. It has the expertise to make its determination about its expenditures on behalf of the Australian taxpayer in such matters, and I do not pretend to be better informed than the Government's experts or the Government. My own personal opinion is, I believe, irrelevant, and I do not intend to express it.
But I think there are some matters that emerge from Mr Stevenson's attempt to link that money with what is happening in the ACT. I think there are some things there that need to be noted. Of course, his matter of public importance makes an unwarranted assumption. The beginning of his matter of public importance reads:
The need for the Chief Minister to seek further funding from the Commonwealth Government for ACT education so as to avoid the need for closing schools ...
There is no need for the Chief Minister to seek funds from the Commonwealth for that purpose. The question whether a school needs to remain open or to close has nothing to do with whether we get sufficient money from the Commonwealth. It has to do with whether this community needs those schools and can afford them. No request has been made of the Commonwealth to provide funds in order to keep schools open; nor will there be any such request. So the matter of public importance is predicated on an incorrect premise. I have sought additional funds from the Commonwealth, out of the Trust Account of money which it is holding on our behalf, for matters that have to do with restructuring the ACT economy as part of our program of micro-economic reform and of dealing with the run-down infrastructure that we have inherited. None of that money, however, is intended for expenditure in the schools program. So there is no link between the two things. I simply wanted to refute any suggestion in the matter of public importance, as presented, that the Chief Minister had sought or intended to seek money for that purpose. Beyond that, I have no further comment to make on this matter of public importance.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: There being no further speakers, discussion on this matter of public importance is concluded.
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