Page 1630 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 19 May 1993
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ADJOURNMENT
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! It being 4.30 pm, I propose the question:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Mr Wood: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.
Question resolved in the negative.
SCHOOL FACILITIES - RATIONALISATION
Discussion of Matter of Public Importance
Debate resumed.
MRS CARNELL: Ms Ellis made a comment about value adding and how important that was, and it is. Certainly, I think the Social Policy Committee inquiry into this area is very interesting and very productive for this Assembly, but Ms Ellis suggested that this sort of value adding would actually add to quality education. It will do that only if the money that we are getting back into the school system via value adding is actually put back into education. As we are acutely aware, now it is not. Lyons Primary School, to give one example, has been very efficiently let out. That money is not going back into the education system; it is going straight back into the revenue pool. So, to assume that value adding in our schools system in some way improves the quality of that education is to totally overlook the reality of the situation.
We totally agree that community consultation and talking to the community about what they want for their school is appropriate. In fact, the Liberal Party policy in this area is to go to school based management; to look at schools and the school fraternity being able to run their own environment; so that they can, as they should, have a direct involvement and actually be able to run the management of that school. It also means that, if a school is willing to come up with the extra money that they need to be able to keep their school open, the Liberal Party would have no trouble with that. All we are saying is that it is not acceptable for the Government to be putting large amounts of extra money into schools that are very little at the expense of the 80, 85 or 90 per cent of other students in the system.
The other approach, of course, is Ms Szuty's. Okay, she does not want to do that either. She just wants more money into the system, literally more money. Quite honestly, that is a decision that the Government has to make, but it has not made that decision. It has gone down the track of across-the-board cuts, leaving 80 or 90 per cent of the kids to suffer just because of a lack of a strategic approach to education. The Liberal Party does not support that and will not support that. We support quality education. We certainly do not support school closures for school closures' sake, but we do support a situation where the majority of children are given the education that they deserve.
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