Page 4886 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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Assembly indicated that the Government was going to take on an inquiry of some kind into this issue. However, we have no references at all that the Government has said they are going to look at. We have no timeframe that it is going to report by a certain date.
I hate to say it, but what it means is that this minority Government is asking the other members of the Assembly to take it on trust. It is fairly apparent, from the way people at these non-government schools have been treated, that you cannot trust this Government. The people at the schools had guarantees - cast-iron guarantees, they imagined - that their funding levels would be maintained for a certain time. Yet this Government has come along and said, "We do not care about that. We are simply going to tear those up. If you do not like it, stick it". That is the sort of approach Mr Wood has taken today: "Trust me. I am going to have an inquiry. I cannot tell you what it is going to look into. I cannot give you the terms of reference".
Mr Kaine: "And I don't think it's urgent".
MR DUBY: "It is certainly not urgent, and I do not know when it is going to report". Could Mr Wood give us some indication of what he is going to do? I am hoping to hear another government speaker get up and say, "These are the things we will look at. These are the things we will investigate".
Mr Berry: We gave you an undertaking of one speaker on MPIs.
MR DUBY: Yes, and I know why. You have nothing more to say on the subject. If you had only given some indication of what you plan to do in relation to this inquiry, Mr Wood, perhaps the other members of the Assembly could take you at your word.
Mr Wood: Sit down and I will tell you, when Mr Humphries moves his motion.
MR DUBY: We have that on the record. If I sit down, Mr Wood is going to tell us when Mr Humphries introduces his motion. This will be very interesting. On that basis, the Government provides the other members of the Assembly with almost no alternative but to support the motion. It is almost as if you are backing us into a corner to say, "Support this motion". In my view, it is clear that you have no intention whatsoever of having any sensible or reasonable inquiry into these matters. There is a need for an inquiry into the dirty deal those non-government schools have received from this Government, and I look forward to hearing Mr Wood's answers to the questions I have asked.
Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, if I might intervene for one moment, perhaps I could seek leave to move my motion at this stage. Members can then speak to both matters at the same time, if that is approved by the Assembly.
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