Page 3410 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 13 October 1993
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The second part found that the schools in Canberra are hardworking and deliver a particularly effective service. Basically it sings the praises of teachers and the schools. On the other hand, the bean counter has said, "We have done a comparison across the other States and you are overfunded in salaries, and these are the areas that contribute to the high costs". (Extension of time granted) Thank you, members. On page 29 there are five dot points:
The ACT has a high proportion of Level 1 teachers in the upper annual incremental steps of the teachers pay scale;
A higher proportion of ACT teachers are receiving Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) allowances ...
The number of teachers in promotions positions appears -
it is not even definite -
high as a proportion of the total teachers in the system;
The ACT has relatively low student per teacher ratios; and
Face-to-face teaching hours of ACT teachers on average are less than in most other States.
On a careful reading of this you can find holes all the way through it, other than in direct bean counting. What we should be looking at is the quality of service that we deliver. There is a whole series of ways in which we can measure educational outcomes. The most self-evident and the most expensive of those is the retention rates. They are the most obvious. They account for 65 per cent of the supposedly $26m-odd by which we are overfunded. The failure of this Labor Government to convince the Grants Commission that they were a factor is deplorable. Let us not let the Grants Commission set our priorities; let the priorities be set by this Government.
The biggest problem is that the Labor Government have not been able to set their own priorities. They are still running on the same set of priorities as when they came into government in 1989. After about five budgets they are still simply fiddling at the edges.
Mr Kaine: A nip and tuck approach to budgeting.
MR MOORE: Mr Kaine interjects that it is a nip and tuck approach to budgeting. That is what we have seen over the last five years. They are not prepared to set their own priorities. Our kids and our future will pay the penalty for their lack of willpower in setting their own priorities.
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (12.07): Madam Speaker, the Independents are in a spot. They have been caught out, and this motion is the way they are trying to come through it. Mr Moore usually handles the media fairly well, but he was stumped on the Matthew Abraham program and he is frantically trying to dig his way out of a hole.
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