Page 3953 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 23 November 1993
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MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (4.01): Madam Speaker, I move the following amendment to the motion moved by Mr Moore:
After "lack of confidence in", insert "the Treasurer and".
Madam Speaker, the Chief Minister was right when she said that the cutbacks in teacher numbers were not a decision taken solely by Mr Wood as Minister. They were the decision of the Government; more particularly, a decision within the responsibility of the Treasurer. The Treasurer, as I understand it, under our system of government, has responsibility for the budget, and this is without doubt a decision for which the Treasurer has to take responsibility. To some extent Mr Wood has been allowed to be a scapegoat for these changes, a scapegoat for the Government and a scapegoat, more particularly, for the Treasurer.
This Treasurer has hidden from the really scathing public criticism which has been levelled at these cutbacks. She has allowed her Minister to wear the flak of the community. She has hidden from the angry teachers and students. Her sole contribution to this Government of late has been a lot of fairly warm and fuzzy photo opportunities in Glebe Park, and possibly in Tokyo. As Treasurer, the axing of 80 teaching positions was a budget decision for which she must take ultimate responsibility, yet up until now she has not done so. For this reason I have moved an amendment to this no-confidence motion to include the Treasurer. Ms Follett is every bit as culpable as, if not more so than, Mr Wood for the reduction in the quality of our public education system in the ACT.
Madam Speaker, I do not think anybody here would argue with the fact that quality public education is the basis of a fair and just society. Unless all children in our community, in both the public system and the private system, have an equal opportunity to access tertiary education and therefore have an equal opportunity for a quality public education system, there can be no social justice in this society. This is certainly not the first time that the Treasurer has reneged on promises she has made to Canberrans about her Government's commitment to education. The ALP 1991-92 election platform promised this:
... a re-elected Labor Government in its first year will:
1. expand funding to ACT government schools at the school level.
Guess what? To quote one of the more delightful phrases of Mr Berry that he often uses in the Assembly, she told a big one. As Treasurer, Ms Follett chopped $3.35m from education in her first budget. She has now cut another $3.4m in her second budget and has savaged teacher numbers in the process. But the promises of the Treasurer have not stopped there. The same ALP election platform stated:
Reflecting its commitment to class sizes of 25 in both primary and high schools, a Labor Government will seek to redirect the resources necessary to reduce ACT class sizes by one per annum until the policy guide-line has been reached.
That is 25, Madam Speaker, and guess what? That would seem to be another big one. Resources have not been redirected - - -
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