Page 5994 - Week 18 - Thursday, 12 December 1991
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would clearly redefine the way this issue needs to be looked at. I am not sure that that has happened. I particularly thank the committee secretary, Judy Henderson, and wish her well in her new place in Tasmania.
This certainly was not an easy inquiry. I have now sat on many committees of inquiry in this Assembly, and I have to say that this was a very difficult one. It is unfortunate that we could not get a consensus report. I always think that that is much more important than a report that ends up with some people dissenting. I hope that this is the beginning of a process of addressing the issue appropriately.
DR KINLOCH (11.19): First of all, this has been a most interesting committee with which to work, beginning with Mr Wood - father of four, with a background in primary education, among many other activities. I want to show the ways in which the committee came to this inquiry with special interests.
We had a young grandmother with a background of nursing experience, namely, Mrs Grassby. We had a mother with two children who are in the age group we are looking at and are in non-government schools. We had a mother with a son in this age group in a government school. We had a father of three, all of whose children have left school, but he remembers those days very well indeed. Finally, to give a contrast, we had a bachelor with another point of view and a different philosophical position on the question of what the state does in relation to the child. Should the state be parental, patriarchal, matriarchal, or should the state keep hands off?
We had, over the term of the inquiry, a great range of views and a great range of experience. Above all, we had the experience of Judith Henderson, herself a mother of two and with a good recognition of the problems in this arena, but also with a professional, competent background in the literature, in the reality of the schools and the reality of the problems we face. I want to endorse what Ms Maher has already said about Mrs Henderson. It was a tremendous effort on her part. We were eternally grateful to her, and she showed that great quality of grace under pressure. Before we completed the report, I believe, we had something like 15 meetings - perhaps it was more.
May I also add my congratulations to the second chair of the committee. Bill Wood started it off well but took on other responsibilities, and we are very glad that he is there to receive this report. Ms Maher took it on capably, at full tilt. She was always prepared to work hard with us, discussing the report with us, in cooperation with Judith Henderson. I thought it was an excellent effort. I have to disagree with some of the remarks made by Mrs Nolan, although I want to say some positive things there too.
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