Page 198 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 1991
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MR HUMPHRIES: They went completely and utterly to ground. I have challenged those opposite to come into this house and produce a single piece of paper evidencing their role in 1987 or 1988 on the position of the Federal Government to close schools - a single piece of evidence of their role in trying to stop those closures - and to date they have not produced a single thing because they cannot, because they did nothing when the schools were closed in 1987 and 1988. For them to come into this place with the hypocrisy that they possess and say, "How dare you close schools", is the height of arrogance and hypocrisy. And, of course, people will not forget that when the next elections come about. It is also often forgotten that they proposed to close preschools during the time of the Follett Government; they proposed to close preschools with very little consultation at the time. And yet they accuse us of treating that area with abandon and without due regard to people's interests in this matter. Nothing could be further from the truth. I will come back to the area of preschools in a moment.
Mr Speaker, I also think it is worth reminding this place that there are other ways in which cuts can be made to education, and that they were made in a fashion wholly damaging to education during the term of the Follett Government. There were proposals to cut the reading recovery program; there were cuts to relief teacher hours; there were proposals to close preschools, and the Follett Government cut 57 teaching positions out of the system. This Government has not cut a single one. I stand proud of that fact, proud of the fact that this Government has not cut teachers because we consider them an important part of the educational process. We are prepared to defend teacher numbers - - -
Mr Kaine: They have all got their heads buried in their papers now, I notice.
MR HUMPHRIES: That is right, Chief Minister, they have their heads buried in their papers because the fact is we have not cut teaching numbers because we think it is important to maintain educational quality. This mob opposite obviously did not care about that; they were prepared to cut teacher numbers and were prepared to defend buildings - bricks and mortar - over teacher numbers. That is as ridiculous a position to have taken then as now. I stand proud of the priorities that we have developed in education. We thought - as I think any reasonable government would have to agree, and other governments in this country, Labor and Liberal alike, have taken the same path - that bricks and mortar were not the most important part of education. It is the quality of what goes on in schools that is important.
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