Page 2061 - Week 07 - Thursday, 16 June 1994
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Education Budget
MS ELLIS: Madam Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister for Education and Training. There seems to be some confusion in the press about the impact of the budget on education in the ACT. Could the Minister please clarify the Government's position on funding for education?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, I would not be satisfied if there was confusion. The statement is clear, as appeared in one Canberra Times headline on the budget which says, "Schools Spared, Funding Steady". That is the case of the ACT budget. We are funding education this year at the same level as we funded it last year. The confusion Ms Ellis mentions may have arisen from a Canberra Times budget supplement heading that says, "Schools funding down by $4m", yet underneath it the stories are exactly the same. There are two different headlines; but the stories, save for two paragraphs, are the same. We should be quite clear about that.
I suppose that it comes down to what subeditors do. I understand that journalists from time to time have the same problem when stories they submit are changed beyond recognition, or headlines that are inappropriate are used. That has been their excuse from time to time. I recall one headline last year that said, "Our violent schools", when in fact the story told how relatively non-violent our schools were. I do not attach any blame to the reporters in this case, but I think the subeditors should read the stories with a little more care to get the headlines right. Obviously, on this one, somebody had a look at it again and said, "That is the wrong headline", and put in the correct one about funding being maintained at steady rates.
Obviously, members across the way, as Government members do, understand the process which is discussed at estimates time. Questions may be asked, such as, "Why are these figures different? You say that you are spending more or less, yet the figures do not show it.", and we take the different elements of the budget, as Mr Connolly expressed it yesterday. There are changing circumstances every year, and in some years new elements are included in a budget. In this case, in education, the balances and the minuses give us that consistent but steady budget. There have been changes this year for the twenty-seventh pay. There have been changes for the separation scheme, and the cost of that and the benefits from that. There have been changes in enrolments. Enrolments at senior secondary level have declined, with the population bubble going through that system. That change, with proportionately more students at younger levels, is a saving for us. We also have had to accommodate salary increases. With these pluses and minuses, we adjust the figures between one year and the next; but the good news is that the budget remains steady.
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