Page 4147 - Week 13 - Thursday, 25 November 1993
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Madam Speaker, as the school based costs represent such a large part of the education budget, it is simply not feasible to avoid the need for greater efficiency in the use of school based resources. As I said, the Auditor-General, amongst other people, has addressed that very question and he will be taken seriously.
Madam Speaker, the Government is certainly not about cutting the quality of educational services to students. We are not about closing down 25 per cent of the community's educational resources, as were the Liberals. What we are about is a planned approach to educational services in the future within this Territory's financial constraints, which simply cannot be ignored. To pretend that there were no such constraints or to pretend that education could be completely quarantined from such constraints is simply not responsible. I consider that what we have put forward is realistic, it is achievable and it will protect our schools both this year and into the future.
MR DE DOMENICO (11.53): Madam Speaker, it is at times fantastic listening to the Chief Minister. The words she uses sound quite good. Let us look at some of the words and some of the phrases she used. First, she invited us not to kid ourselves, because the Auditor-General is a wonderful person and does a wonderful job. That is true. He does a fantastic job and he is a wonderful person. She said that the aim of the Government is to improve standards. That is a wonderful motherhood statement as well, because we all want to improve standards for our teachers, for our students and for everybody. She talked about "widest possible consultation". Once again those three words - "widest possible consultation" - are really fantastic.
Mr Wood today used the words "realistic" and "innovative" in speaking about our education system. When we look at the Labor Party policy, platform and various documents released from time to time we see that their aim is to have classes of fewer than 25 students. The Chief Minister and Mr Wood have talked about there being no school closures, and they have made a lot of what Mr Humphries was supposed to have done when he was Minister for Education. Having fewer than 25 students per class sounds good; "no school closures" sounds very good as well. "Quality of education" is another phrase that sounds great.
All these things really sound fantastic, but the one thing that we did not hear the Chief Minister or Mr Wood talk about is the reality that this Government - this is their Appropriation Bill that we are debating - has said privately and publicly in the Estimates Committee and elsewhere, although it has tried to run away and not to say it, that we are talking about 80 fewer teachers.
Mrs Carnell: That is this year.
MR DE DOMENICO: That is this year. We also know that Mr Wood has not restrained himself from suggesting - quite rightly, by the way, because that is what his intentions are, quite obviously - that there may be more teachers going next year. That is a fact as well. Let us talk about the no school closures situation. At the Estimates Committee Mr Wood once again realistically said that in the future everything is on the drawing board once again. He said, "Yes, there will need to be some school closures. If we are going to be innovative and realistic, there will need to be some school closures". That is the reality. That is what Mr Wood said under questioning. Ms Follett, though, continues to attack the Opposition because of their previous policy of closing schools. That is exactly what Mr Wood suggested may happen after the next election.
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