Page 1623 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 19 May 1993
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The stark reality, Madam Speaker, as we saw by the recent report from the Grants Commission, is that the ACT, in round figures, is going to be $80m worse off. I think the figure was $79.5m. We also know by reading the report of the Grants Commission that of that $79.5m some $18m, or nearly 20 per cent, is related to the education budget. Notwithstanding which political party is in government by the way, it is an issue that is not going to go away. The ACT cannot ignore the facts. The facts are that we are going to be roughly $80m worse off and that part of that $80m, in fact 20 per cent or $18m, relates to the education budget. That is the first point that I would like to make.
Mr Wood also said that the schools are not made from Lego. I agree with Mr Wood; they are not made from Lego. But the fact is that by Mr Wood's own figures, not our figures, there are 9,072 unused spaces in schools. I think the first question that needs to be asked is: Why? Why are there 9,072 unused spaces? Mr Wood has not answered that. He attempted to on the Matthew Abraham show, and the only answer he had was to deny that the figures were any good. He said, "Ignore the figures". Mr Abraham and Mr Cornwell and others quite rightly said, "Well, if they are no good, why give them to us, why use them at all?". The Lego argument does not look at the logic of the situation.
Mr Wood also said that cost savings have been achieved already, and he is right again; I agree with him. Some cost savings have been achieved. If one reads one's documents and the statements made by various members of the house from time to time, we know that last year $3.4m less, I think, was spent on education than in the year before. That is 1.8 per cent less, not even 2 per cent. The Chief Minister stood in this Assembly and said, "We will be asked to make a 2 per cent cut across the board". We got close in education. But 1.8 per cent, or $3.4m, pales into insignificance when you look at the reality of what the Grants Commission says. The Grants Commission is talking about $18m. It is very difficult for members on this side of the house not to be accused of concentrating only on the financial aspects. You have to take the financial aspects into account. There is no doubt about that.
Mr Wood corrected Mr Cornwell and others who have referred to team sports in primary schools, and I was pleased that Mr Wood said no, that the only thing that has been abandoned is the interstate competition. Once again I reiterate that there are members of Mr Wood's party - they have been named before, so I will not name them again - who have expressed concern about that as well. On the one hand we are told how important things like competition, sports competition in particular, are to the upbringing and education of the child, but on the other hand we are cutting away those quality-type things in order to try to meet that monetary situation. So it is not right for Mr Wood to say that it is only the ALP that thinks of the school and the pupils per se and not the money; it is not right, based on the comments that he made himself.
Mr Wood would also know that there are currently some schools in the ACT - I fear being labelled as one who is going to name schools that perhaps are on the chopping block - where it has got to the stage that certain parents are now putting their hands into their kicks to make sure that the kids have enough pencils and whatever. Mr Wood knows that, and I do not need to name any schools. Mr Wood also tends to think that it is only the Liberal Party in the ACT that has ever been talking about school closures. They seem to be words that you cannot use. Mr Wood should remember that the South Australian Government has closed some 50 schools since the middle of the 1980s.
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