Page 2991 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 September 1994
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A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting North Ainslie Primary School. They were very interested in this question of an international airport for the ACT, very interested in the work of the Tourism and ACT Promotion Committee and very interested in the information which was put before the committee during the inquiry process. I must record my thanks to the school community at North Ainslie for participating so fully in the process, when the students considered whether or not an international airport for the ACT would be a good thing.
In my remarks I have not covered many of the issues that the committee addressed. I believe that they are fully noted in the committee's report. I would like to return, finally, to the vision that I talked about earlier. I believe that opportunities exist for the ACT to optimise the further development of Canberra Airport. I believe that we need a five-year plan which will look especially at potential development leading up to the Sydney 2000 Olympics and the 2001 centenary of Federation. We will not have such opportunities again. If we are to take full advantage of them, we need to be thinking now about the international capacity of Canberra Airport in the future.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (11.59): Madam Speaker, the Government welcomes the inquiry into the tourism benefits of an international airport in Canberra.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! The time allotted for Assembly business has expired.
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS - STANDING COMMITTEE
Report on Review of Auditor-General's Report No. 6 of 1993
MR KAINE (11.59): Madam Speaker, I present report No. 11 of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts entitled "Review of Auditor-General's Report No. 6, 1993 - Government Schooling Program". I move:
That the report be noted.
This report from the Auditor-General has probably generated more controversy than most of his reports do, because it raised questions of significant importance within the school system about teaching numbers, teaching workloads, class ratios and things of that kind. The Auditor-General drew some conclusions that tended to put the ACT school system into a bad light in comparison with the States and the Northern Territory. The committee heard a great deal of evidence from teachers, from school principals and from people in the Education Department, who questioned the validity of the kinds of comparisons that the Auditor-General had done to arrive at his conclusions. The committee, in fairness, had to come to the conclusion that the database that is available to the Auditor-General - or to anybody else, for that matter - that could be used for such comparisons is incomplete and perhaps unsuitable for the purpose. So, in essence, the committee's report has tended to write down the criticisms that the Auditor-General made and to put question marks on the courses of action that the Auditor-General recommended by which costs in the education system could be reduced.
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