Page 1467 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 17 April 1991
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paid to do, and that is, work for the Minister who has the portfolio within which they work. I do not see that there is any contradiction and I do not quite see what point you are trying to make.
MS FOLLETT: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Would the Chief Minister table the direction that he gave?
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, the presumption is that I give all my directions in writing. What rubbish! I talk to my public servants. Didn't you ever talk to yours when you were Chief Minister?
Ms Follett: They said that motivation came from the Authority. They did not mention you.
MR KAINE: If you are trying to assert that this legislation has come from within the Territory Planning Authority, that is crazy. That is not where the motivation came from. That is not where the direction came from. These public servants are working to their Ministers. It is as simple as that. They did it when you were the Chief Minister and they do it for me.
Educational Assessment Standards
MRS NOLAN: My question is to Mr Humphries in his capacity as Minister for Education. Has the Alliance Government given any consideration to the merits or otherwise of the ACT educational system adhering to a set of future national assessment standards for year 12 students, as has been suggested by the Commonwealth Minister for Employment, Education and Training, Mr Dawkins?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I thank Mrs Nolan for that question. The Alliance Government is considering its position on whether there would be any value in the ACT adopting any forthcoming national assessment standards that might be set. I expect, personally, that we would support such a proposal provided that the assessment system was optional to those provided by the ACT - in other words, it was available to ACT schools to choose whether to take part in that national assessment program - and also provided that the Commonwealth Government met the costs involved in such a program.
The ACT currently has a system of continuous assessment of year 11 and year 12 students by individual schools, operating under guidelines set down by the ministry. The system is an important component of school-based curriculum development and I think it has contributed to a retention rate in our Territory which is far higher than any other education system in the country has attained.
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