Page 2182 - Week 07 - Thursday, 6 June 1991
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MR WOOD: Oh, was it? Well, I think it needs to be out there. We need that direction. We have not yet got down to the details of Mr Humphries' testing proposals. Those testing proposals, thankfully, have not been developed into a final stage, and I can say now that they will not be. Nevertheless, in 18 months, on a matter that was of high priority, the Minister has not been able to get something close to anywhere near a final form.
Another matter of some significance that was raised was school-based management. Again, while there are some steps that have been taken after 18 months, there is clear evidence that there is no ability to pursue a target and have something completed. These are all matters of significance, whether it is the great mess that has been made over the policy on school closures, or the inability to bring in a defined philosophy and to encourage the system, or the simple inability to get relatively less important matters up and running.
This Government is inept; it is incompetent. It has not been able in education, as in other areas, to make the significant progress that is so urgently needed. I will not develop, for lack of time, the basis of all this, which comes back to the needs of our young people in our schools. The Labor Party claims that this is the greatest priority in our community.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (3.20): We have come full circle in the Assembly today. The Labor Party, which lost government in such controversial circumstances 18 months ago, now has an opportunity to tip out of power the Alliance Government. Whether that will be the case remains to be seen. During the debate on the last successful no-confidence motion, in December 1989, the then Deputy Chief Minister said - and I think it is worth quoting his words:
... the no-confidence motion before the house today is based on nothing more than a perceived new-found ability to count heads on the part of a couple of political opportunists.
I do not think, Mr Speaker, that Mr Whalan, on that occasion, was referring to Ms Follett and Mr Berry, although today those very words might well apply to them because that is precisely what this motion is leading the Territory into today. Everything that was said on 5 December 1989 about a power grab and about an act of contempt could equally be said of this motion today. Ms Follett said on that day:
None of this is achievable if there is uncertainty.
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