Page 3413 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 13 October 1993
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MR WOOD: You lose the position.
Mr Humphries: Not a teacher.
MR WOOD: I do not think a principal would appreciate being told that he is not a teacher. Ms Szuty had better look at this option. I know that she would avoid it. To save $1.5m, it is a matter of simple mathematics to determine the number of schools that you would have to close. But, of course, the Government is choosing a different path. There is pressure in this area. I admit it; I acknowledge it. It is written into the budget in the savings that we are looking to make in the next two years. Those savings do not have to be converted into teachers, as Mr Moore wants to do.
Mr Moore: You have just said that it is the only option.
MR WOOD: Mr Cornwell read out that the budget papers indicate the order of cuts in future years. We have to reduce our budget. We have been up front and we have indicated that. The savings do not necessarily have to come from teachers. There may be pressure in that direction; but, for example, the redundancy packages, the separation packages, which I think will be worked through eventually, provide us with the means of making quite significant savings.
We are looking at the future of education. We started this process at the end of last year, and we are looking at how we may do things differently and better. I give Mr Moore some credit. I am giving too much credit, I think. In relation to some issues, Mr Moore has been prepared to find a different and better way of doing things. I think he has some achievements to his name there. But with schools he does not want to take that proper approach. He wants to keep schools locked in exactly as they are now. (Extension of time granted) Thank you, members. Mr Moore does not want to see, as he does with drugs, different and better ways of doing things. He wants us to be locked into the way things are now. He is not prepared to have a different and better view. Ms Szuty is the same. She is not prepared to see that there are different ways of doing things.
The Chief Minister said that it was not easy to make these decisions. They are not decisions we willingly made; but I have acknowledged them in the end, for two reasons. Firstly, after what the Federal Government did and the acceleration of the move to State level expenditure, these reductions in budgets are absolutely inevitable. Secondly, I came to understand that these reductions can be managed and that there need be no diminution in the quality of our education. On that basis these reductions in expenditure can be controlled and the quality of our system can be maintained; indeed, the quality of our system can be enhanced.
Madam Speaker, Mr Cornwell made some comment about the size of classes. He quoted a couple of statistics, and no doubt he is absolutely right. He was a bit like Mr Moore, who did a quick ring around the schools. For every one of those classes above 30, I will find you classes below 30.
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