Page 3851 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 October 1991
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MR CONNOLLY: That is what the taxpayers of Canberra are paying. You are trying to create the impression out there that we have taken away all their money.
Mr Jensen: We all know the story about statistics, Terry - lies, damn lies and statistics.
MR CONNOLLY: But they are still getting that sum of money.
Ms Follett: On a point of order, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker: I think the degree of interjection ought to be brought to a halt.
MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mrs Grassby): Order!
MR CONNOLLY: The other staggering piece of hysteria here is the enthusiasm from the Alliance, and certain spokespersons, for the AME School - a school of 180 students and one that, if it were a government school - - -
Ms Follett: You would have closed it.
MR CONNOLLY: Dr Kinloch would have stood in the joint party room and moved a motion to close it. This is a school of a size that you would have closed if it were a government school. So, you have suddenly changed your spots.
Mr Humphries has changed his spots more than anybody else, because he is the man who, in the forward estimates, was going to take nearly $2m out of the non-government schooling sector. This Labor Government, committed to social justice, despite the extraordinarily difficult budgetary situation that we found ourselves in, reversed that decision when it came in. This Labor Government did not proceed with those cuts. The community ought to know what those cuts would have meant. They would have meant that $175,000 would have gone from Marist, Mrs Nolan; $139,000 would have gone from St Edmund's; $169,758 would have gone from Daramalan.
Mr Humphries: Scaremongering.
MR CONNOLLY: Where else would the $2m have come from, Mr Humphries? And $1,101,000 and a few odd dollars would have gone from the Catholic Education Office for general funding across the range of smaller parish schools.
Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, this is the man who was going to make that cut to the non-government schooling sector. Those dollars were restored by this Labor Government, by this Education Minister and by this Treasurer. We are proud of what we have done on this, and we will stand up to any scrutiny. The attempt has been made to suggest that this is an attack on the overall non-government school sector. This schedule of cuts that would have occurred under Mr Humphries' Liberal Party budget was an attack on the overall non-government school sector. Mr Wood has taken funding off three schools.
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