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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 310 ..

Mr Moore: It is a budget-cutting exercise.

MR STEFANIAK: I note with interest the points raised by Mr Moore. Obviously, this is not just a cost-cutting exercise. It is certainly not that at all. That is something I think we need to be very aware of. It is important that schools have adequate resources at the start and that they can utilise resources in a much freer way than they can at present. That is certainly something which we are very concerned to see maintained. That will give them maximum flexibility, which is crucially important. I look forward to the further evolvement of this major initiative - something, of course, the previous Government did not bother about.

Despite Ms McRae's comments in relation to the maintenance program, it is $9.7m, Ms McRae, or some $29m over three years. That is basically what was going to be spent on maintenance, regardless of who was in government, Ms McRae. That is a significant amount of money being spent on maintenance. Ms McRae also talked about low-maintenance ovals. That is something the previous Government introduced as a cost-saving measure, and - - -

Ms McRae: Yes, but you did not fix it when you put in your sport program, did you? You are the one who put in the sport program.

MR STEFANIAK: Ms McRae, we are slowly redressing that. Go and have a look at Macquarie oval. A pilot project under way there will redress the damage done by your Government. Of course, the Government you were involved in left a considerable debt for this Territory which we are now trying to take steps to overcome. That does not help, either.

Ms McRae talked about sport in schools, as did Ms Tucker. Ms Tucker, I must admit, made a lot more sense in what she was saying. I find it quite amazing to listen to comments by Ms McRae. She is also the Opposition sport spokeswoman. Numerous inquiries, starting with the Senate inquiry, a bipartisan group, and including the group set up by the previous Government, recommended exactly what we are doing. Every other State in the country now realises what the situation is and what is needed. Ms McRae still has the temerity to criticise what I thought was an excellent program which involved extensive consultation that even Ms Tucker acknowledges and took into account all the views of the community, and the school community especially. In fact, Ms McRae, the one area which still needs addressing and which we would be addressing but for the bans is professional development. Six hundred primary school teachers were going to go through that but now cannot because of the bans.

Everything that was raised in community consultation and consultation with the relevant players in the schools was taken into account. We have an excellent model for our schools. It is particularly relevant, as indeed it should be, for our schools. It is far better than the previous situation. Some schools were very good, doing up to 260 minutes, but others were doing only 45 minutes a week, Ms McRae. Do you think that is good enough? I do not think any of the sporting groups, or indeed most of the mothers and fathers, would be remotely impressed by your statements in relation to that today.

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