Page 3854 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 October 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR CONNOLLY: That is what he said. I agree that it is garbage, Mr Humphries. It is offensive garbage. He said it, and he ought to be ashamed of himself.
MRS NOLAN (4.17): I am aware that other members wish to speak this afternoon, so I will try to keep my remarks fairly short.
Mr Wood: They have not tried before, have they?
MRS NOLAN: I would have to say, Mr Wood, that there have been many occasions when I have criticised this decision. Question time is a rather difficult one in this Assembly. I can produce questions that I have been prepared to ask. On some days I have not even been able to get one question up.
Mr Wood: You asked me about Stromlo today.
MRS NOLAN: By the time I had a chance to ask a question today, Mr Wood, I was aware that this was on the program for this afternoon. But for some considerable time we did question you in the Estimates Committee last week. That was when I asked the question in relation to your not even having visited one of those schools, the AME School. It is rather difficult to be making decisions about a school that you had not been to, although I am not sure whether you have visited it in the last week. I was very disappointed to see that, as Minister for Education, you made a decision in relation to the funding of a school when you were not fully aware of just what that school was all about.
I believe that the effects of the decision to remove the funding, the cushioning effect, from these three particular schools will be remembered for a long time to come, certainly in terms of the AME School. It may not even be able to continue, and I think that is very serious. We are all aware that budgets are determined for a period of 12 months. To put that in place now, announcing the decision to operate from the beginning of the next school year, is going to make it very difficult for those three schools to budget accordingly.
Mr Connolly quoted a figure of $920,000, I believe, which he says the ACT Government allocates to the Grammar School. We all know how many students go to the Grammar School, Mr Connolly. It is interesting to note that $530,000-odd is what has been expended by your Government to reopen Cook and Lyons primary schools for less than 180 students. So, again, I am not quite sure that there is very much equity in that sort of decision.
I will declare my interest. I have two children at non-government schools. They certainly are not at the three schools that have been affected. I have had a concern for a long time for the non-government schools, not only in this city but also in other cities. I have to say that I
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .