Page 1175 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994
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Teacher Numbers
MR CORNWELL: Madam Speaker, my question is directed to Mr Wood, the Minister for Education. I refer the Minister to the financial imperative of the 1993-94 budget that required 80 teachers in the government system to be sacrificed. As members will know, they have been saved. But can you now advise, 10 months into the financial year, where the financial cuts have been made that you maintained were essential in relation to these 80 teacher positions?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, the proposal we made, though hard, was nevertheless the best proposal at the time and has proved so since. I did consider a range of alternative savings measures; but in my view, and in the view of the Government, they were less desirable and rather more disruptive to teaching patterns. In the event, we have managed the education budget as tightly as possible, receiving very considerable assistance from the success of the redundancy scheme. You will recall that some 203 teachers accepted redundancies. That has resulted in very significant savings to the education budget. Nevertheless, it remains the case that we are managing the budget as tightly as we can. I will give you a full report on that outcome, no doubt, in the Estimates Committee.
MR CORNWELL: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. How much money has been saved on this, and am I therefore to understand that it was not necessary to dispense with the services of 80 teachers?
Mr Wood: What was that second bit?
MR CORNWELL: Am I to understand that it was not necessary to dispense with the services of 80 teachers; that you have discovered now that you can manage your education budget without getting rid of them?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, the education budget remains under severe financial pressure. The education system is an expensive system to operate, though of course a good system. The forward estimates still show the difficulty for the Government ahead in needing to make savings in education. I think Mr Cornwell asked what the savings from the redundancies were. In a full year, the saving is $3.2m.
Mrs Carnell: This year?
MR WOOD: In a full year.
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