Page 3857 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 October 1991
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MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, please, Mr Wood! We do have a speaker on his feet.
MR KAINE: I think it would have been rather unfortunate, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, had people not had an opportunity to speak their minds on this subject. It is all very well for Mr Wood to say that they have had plenty of time. The only time for debate of this subject until now in any practical sense has been in the Estimates Committee. There has not been any debate anywhere else. It is time that it was put on the public record rather than in the transcript of a committee hearing. I think the general realisation of everybody except the Labor Government is that the decision was wrong and that it should be reversed - there is no question about it - and they should begin to bow to public pressure.
Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, some of the members of the Government were quoting from speeches and the like. I would like to read a short quote as well. I quote from the budget speech of the Chief Minister only a few short weeks ago, on 17 September, when she said:
... I do not believe that progress can be made unless social justice objectives are given the highest priority and the community is involved in the process of adjustment.
But then she went on to say:
No matter how strong the rhetorical justification that may be given for particular budget measures, they will not succeed if the community believes that these measures are unjust or unfair.
I repeat:
... they will not succeed if the community believes that these measures are unjust or unfair.
I believe that the community believes that this measure is both unjust and unfair. The Chief Minister also went on to say:
That is why my Government has, once again, sought community input into budget decisions.
One of the reasons why this particular decision is wrong is the fact that there was no consultation. The Chief Minister and the Government obviously consulted with a lot of other people. I have mentioned in another place the fact that they did get some comment, and this was referred to in the Budget Overview, Paper No. 2, which stated that "some people" believed that non-government schooling should be made so expensive through a decrease in ACT Government funding that students would be forced into the government schools and thereby solve the underutilisation problem.
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