Page 3944 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 23 November 1993
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These are indeed appropriate goals and appropriate challenges. They cannot be met, Madam Speaker, by cutting funds to education.
The same people of Canberra who were taken in by these Labor Party promises are understandably bewildered by the fact that when cuts have to be made they are made at the very core of education, the teachers. Most parents would be fully aware that the education our children receive is only as good as the quality of the teacher they have and the time allocated to each pupil by that teacher. The teacher is the most vital component in all of the educational components in our schools. The skills the student may acquire through computers, videos and other electronic media count for very little indeed if they are not put into context by a teacher who has a close and understanding relationship with that student.
The most disturbing feature of these proposed cuts to teachers is that many of them will be made at high schools and colleges where adolescents, facing the most complex problems socially, emotionally and physically, are to be the most affected. If anything, the Government should be increasing the support in these areas. There are enough reports that have come out of inquiries on the subject to suggest that the high school areas, in particular, are in need of increased support, not a decrease.
Over the past few weeks, Madam Speaker, the Minister and the Government have had every possible opportunity to rearrange this budget so that the cuts could be made in areas that would not have the same devastating effect on the standard of education in our schools. They have chosen not to take any of these opportunities and have remained intractable on the matter. Contrary to what Mr Wood was suggesting in his answer to a question today, we have met on a number of occasions and Ms Szuty and I together have raised with Mr Wood and Ms Follett the issue of these education cuts. Mr Wood is also aware - and I accept his rhetoric - that I have had a vital interest in education, and I continue to have that vital interest in education throughout the ACT.
The issue really is one of social justice. Why should the young in our community pay such a high price for what is really the incompetence of a Minister who has not been able to stand up for their rights? They have a right to a sound education. Their champion, this Minister, has not managed to show enough spine, in either caucus or Cabinet, in standing up for them and their needs. They have every right to be angry, and we have seen them angry, Madam Speaker. We have seen students out here speaking to a crowd. We have seen - - -
Mr Connolly: Not many of them.
MR MOORE: Mr Connolly interjects, "Not many of them". We have seen a very large gathering of the students of Narrabundah College, representative of the general feeling - - -
Ms Follett: Led by the Democrats.
Mr Connolly: No, no; led by the Trots.
MR MOORE: We have an interjection - I think it came from Mr Berry - saying that they are just Trotskies.
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