Page 4885 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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I especially welcome item 3 of Mr Humphries' proposal, and I will conclude with at. The Rally endorses that section, which states:
This Assembly calls upon the ACT Government to suspend proposed cuts to three non-government schools pending the outcome of this inquiry.
MR DUBY (3.41): At the outset let me say that I endorse entirely the comments that have been made by Mr Humphries in relation to the inequitable treatment the non-government schools in question have received at the hands of this Government.
Mr Berry: Craig Duby, you will do anything to get a vote.
MR DUBY: No; it is absolutely true. The treatment they have been dealt is shoddy, frankly. On any standard, it is clear that the treatment has been dealt out on a political basis rather than on anything to do with funding or education. The argument is plain. The decision has been made in caucus: "We need half a million from somewhere to pay for the reopening of the Lyons school. Where can we get it? We cannot get more money into the Education Department system, so we will take it from somebody who cannot fight back. Who will we take it from? We will take it from those people whose children go to the grammar schools. They are all Liberal or non-Labor voters anyway; we are not losing any votes".
Mr Wood: That is your opinion; it is not ours.
Mr Berry: I know a few who go there.
MR DUBY: That is the logic. It is as plain as the nose on Mr Berry's face that that is the way the decision has been made.
Some of the comments made by Dr Kinloch were very interesting. A number of the matters he said should be looked at do warrant investigation. However, it appears to me that Dr Kinloch is counting his chickens before they hatch. The motion that is going to be moved by Mr Humphries is not binding on the Government. The Assembly can call upon the Government to do such and such. It is not obliged in any way either to hold the inquiry or to suspend the proposed cuts to the schools' funding pending the outcome of the inquiry.
During his address to the Assembly Mr Wood, the Minister, in no way indicated what the Government was going to do. We seemed to hear, "Yes, we are going to have an inquiry", or "Are we or aren't we?" or whatever. I am most disappointed, because the responses Mr Wood gave in question time today and when he began his speech to the
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