Page 3864 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 October 1991
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MR MOORE (4.48): I will speak briefly, mainly because of some of the hypocrisy that I see around me. Let me first establish my position. I have made it very clear that I oppose any cuts at all to education, and that includes these cuts. However, I do think it is entirely appropriate that we increase the level of funding to government schooling. So, I would change the balance between government and non-government schools by increasing government education funding. I notice that the budget papers reveal an actual increase in funding to the non-government sector while there is a decrease in funding to the government sector. It is something that I oppose.
One of the things that I find very interesting is that at one small time in the Estimates Committee, on one afternoon, instead of having the normal scratching for the quorum of three we suddenly had a group of people rushing in , while the television cameras were there, to ask questions about non-government schools and about what is happening with these three schools.
Mr Jensen: The same thing happened last year; but it was the other side.
MR MOORE: Mr Jensen interjects that the same thing happened last year. I think that is true. I give credit to Mr Jensen, who has been there the whole time for the last three years. I think I would be correct in saying that he has not missed any of it. Granted, he is the chairman. He is doing a good job chairing that committee, I might put on the record.
As far as this particular issue goes, there is only one exception in this house, as far as I am concerned, to the grandstanding on this issue, and that exception is Mr Humphries. The first person to come out and say, "This is wrong. I oppose this", was Gary Humphries. He made his position clear, and it was quite obvious. I do not perceive him as grandstanding. But suddenly others thought, "Oh, this looks like an issue. There are a few votes in this". As in the chook pen - if I can use your metaphor - somebody has thrown down a bit of seed, a few votes for the hens.
I see a great deal of grandstanding on this issue and a great deal of hypocrisy coming from a number of members here, members who were in an Alliance government, members who by their own admission moved for the closure of specific schools, who were keen to close schools down, who were happy to decimate the government education system. Now they are saying, "We should look after all education, but particularly these three schools". Do not mistake me; I have made it quite clear that I oppose the cuts to these schools, but certainly not with the same vigour and energy that we have heard from some people.
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