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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 52 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

In relation to the bans, they are having a widespread effect on extracurricular activities in all sectors of public schooling. It really is difficult to reconcile this politically-driven industrial agenda with a real commitment to the importance of our young people's education. Information from the schools indicates that at the primary level the bans prevent activities for students out of normal school hours such as camps, interschool sport, excursions and socials. At high schools they are preventing excursions, camps, including peer support camps, sporting trips, drama productions, the Rock Eisteddfod, Duke of Edinburgh Award activities and socials. At colleges they are preventing excursions, camps, sporting trips, drama productions, the Rock Eisteddfod, and work experience placement, including the Australian vocational training scheme courses. That especially, together with some of the more major problems to do with interschool sport that we have seen in recent times, is particularly worrying.

I remind the Assembly that students get only one go at education, and the teachers union leadership needs to understand that. For many students, 1996 will be the first and last time they will get a chance to represent the ACT in some sports. Maybe they do understand but just do not care. I hope that is not the case. Of course, this is true for all education. These bans are taking education, whether it be sport or mathematics, from our students. What is lost now cannot be replaced. If these bans do continue, a lot of students in 1996 will miss out on activities, development opportunities and opportunities to represent the ACT or even Australia at national and State level sporting events. Those opportunities do not come again.

We cannot measure the effect of not having Year 7 or Year 10 camps. Those camps are an important element of the whole package of education. They are a fundamental part of education today. The camps play an important role in motivating students, in building friendships, and in maximising the benefit of peer support programs in schools. The union claims that the core business of teaching and learning is not affected. I would have to disagree with that. If these current bans continue, they will seriously affect many college and high school students in classes where learning and assessment are dependent on excursions or classes which take place outside of teaching hours. Of course, bans on such programs as work experience and the AVTS course do have a major impact on students' education. In those courses, the bans affect a large number of students for whom those courses are very important for future employment.

These bans are a real problem. There are other ways in which the union can go about seeking the 9 per cent it wants. The bans are not affecting any of us here as members of the Government, the crossbenches or the Opposition. They are affecting ACT students. I reiterate the call I have made on a number of occasions to the union to lift the bans. Engage in some other form of industrial activity if you must, but lift those bans because they are affecting our students.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Osborne? I call Mr Berry.

MR BERRY (3.36): Age before beauty, Mr Speaker. The reason I may be excused for elbowing my way in front of Mr Osborne is that I would like to go to some of the issues Mr Moore raised, which were not up to scratch in the scheme of this debate. For example, Mr Moore said that the failure of unions to agree to anything but a block negotiation was one of the problems. The problem is that the negotiations have not

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