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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 308 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

If those opposite were in government right now, they would be doing exactly what they did in the previous four years, that is, cutting education funding, cutting back maintenance; but putting what in its place - any avenue or any approach that schools could use to improve the lot of their students? What we have in the ACT at the moment certainly is a funding crisis. There is no doubt about that. But what this Assembly should be doing is making some effort, as the Government is, to work out how we are going to cope with that - not just knock it the whole time, as Mr Berry does, and not just say, "We will just give everybody a 9 per cent, no trade-off wage increase that we simply cannot afford". That would mean only longer waiting lists, larger class sizes and all the rest of the things that would happen. That is easy. It is the simple approach. Unfortunately, Mr Speaker, that is not the approach that this Government will take.

We believe very strongly that the community's money should be spent in the best way possible. We would love to be able to have primary school classes of 20 and high school classes of 25. It is in our policy that we would like to be aiming at 25 students per class. It would be lovely if the Commonwealth Government would change its view on education funding. It would be wonderful if the Grants Commission would fund us for the retention rates that we are so proud of. The fact is that they will not at the moment, so what we have to do in this place is learn how to use the money we have - raise as much revenue as we can within the bounds of fairness and equity, but use the money we have the best way we can.

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Training) (11.53), in reply: As the Chief Minister has said, it would be all very easy if the Commonwealth would give us the money. The Commonwealth does not. Even the Education Union thinks the Commonwealth should fund 50 per cent of education Australia-wide. It currently funds 44 per cent. The fact is that the States simply do not have the money to make up the difference. That is something the Commonwealth should do. Quite clearly, the Commonwealth should put its money where its mouth is and do more. It is totally inappropriate for the - - -

Mrs Carnell: Maybe after Saturday we will have a show.

MR STEFANIAK: Maybe after Saturday they will. That is just fundamental. Since 1989 our untied grants, which could be used to assist in education and other areas, have gone from $500m down to $270m. That is a fall of about 49 per cent in real terms. Those grants will continue to go down over the next couple of years.

Mrs Carnell: It shows you how much the Federal Labor Government cares about Canberra.

MR STEFANIAK: That is exactly right, Chief Minister. It shows you how much the Federal Labor Government cares about Canberra. Those grants will go down further, Mr Speaker. Despite the total lack of support from the Commonwealth, despite the fact that they have cut our funding from under our feet in this area and in others, and despite a very large deficit that has required us to struggle in many areas in an attempt to get this

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