Page 2513 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 7 August 1991
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MR BERRY (Minister for Health and Minister for Sport) (12.20): It was interesting to listen to Mr Collaery playing to Mr Stevenson's crowd. I must say that I have some sympathy for that crowd, because they have been dragged out in the cold on the basis of a promise that could never have been fulfilled, because it was a matter that was going to be decided by a committee of this Assembly. It is irresponsible, I think, for members to say that certain matters are going to be decided in this Assembly when it is not set in concrete.
We have had a lot of swerving and diving here today - people trying to move away from their respective positions in relation to the schools debate. It is clear that the former Alliance Government - and the Residents Rally was included in that Government, along with Mr Duby, Ms Maher and the Liberals - made some irresponsible decisions in relation to education. That is very clear, and there has been a polarisation of the community as a result of those decisions.
It is true that the Alliance Government had a very, very minuscule measure of support for its decision, but that would have been from the uninformed in the community, who have been fed, I think, a line which is inaccurate in education terms. With that philosophical bent, the former Government moved to do as it promised it would do with the education system; that is, rape it. Some in the community decided that they would fight, such as the people from Cook and Lyons primary schools. Others accepted that there was a government of a particular philosophical bent, and there was some grim acceptance that they would have to put up with what the Government had decided to do. They decided, for one reason or another, against a long, drawn out struggle.
What we have had happen in this matter is that the former Government, and those who served the Government, have worked with - and, I suggest, perhaps promoted - the idea of speeding up this amalgamation. In that process certain promises were made about a package of goodies that would be provided to the school if that amalgamation was speeded up. And, of course, people became wedded to the decision. But the very real problem has been that the community was never able to anticipate that there would be a change of government. The community could have expected, if there were a Labor government, that there would be no move to close schools in this first term, because that is what Labor promised when it originally came into government - and we have stood by that promise all the way along.
Labor has decided to listen to the community. That has been our promise all along. We have decided not to fast-track the amalgamation of these schools because, quite frankly, we are sick of fast-tracking. We have seen the damage that it has done in the health system. We have seen the amount of the community's money that has been poured into the health system to fast-track the closure for
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