Page 1295 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 16 April 1991
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There must be a few embarrassments for the ALP in having this debate. We all know that what the ALP in this Territory have said about school closures is inconsistent with their own Federal Government's policy of only two years ago in this Territory. They know that members of the ALP involved in this Assembly were in fact also intimately involved in the making of those decisions about the closure of schools in 1988.
Ms Follett: That is untrue.
MR HUMPHRIES: I am sure it is perfectly true. I am sure it is perfectly true if one looks at the position of the former Deputy Leader of the Labor Party in this place and the position he formerly held in the office of the then shadow Minister or the then Minister for the ACT. We know that there are people in the ALP who do not agree with this position, and I think we have to understand very clearly that the promise being made by the Labor Opposition at present is a promise which will never be fulfilled. I have absolutely no doubt about that, and I fully expect to see not one single school reopen as part of this policy.
Let us ask ourselves why that should be the case. The Opposition have had put to them the question, "Why did you not reopen schools that you inherited when you took Government in May 1989?". The answer to that question has been somewhat less than satisfactory. Of course, schools were closed by the Federal Labor Government at the end of 1988, say December 1988, and the Follett Government took office in May 1989 - a period of less than six months later. The wood nailed up on the door had hardly begun to rot when the Follett Government and the ACT Labor Party had their big chance to fulfil their promise to reopen schools and to preserve the neighbourhood school concept. That is what they say in this little rag they have been putting out. They say:
The Labor Party supports the concept of neighbourhood schools.
Ms Follett: We do. Hear, hear! Exactly so.
MR HUMPHRIES: Well, why did you not implement the policy of neighbourhood schools in respect of the schools that were closed by your own colleagues in 1988? Why did you not open those schools again? They were neighbourhood schools too, or were they not? Were they different schools in some way? Of course they were not. They were neighbourhood schools.
Mr Collaery: It is called having unclean hands.
MR HUMPHRIES: Why were they not reopened? The reason, of course, is - - -
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