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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (29 February) . . Page.. 459 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

It is an entirely inequitable situation when that happens on the one hand and on the other hand we see the support provided for other people in doing their jobs. If we believe, as educationalists, that such excursions are an important part of the curriculum, and they are recognised that way - indeed, I do - we should also be prepared to support that in exactly the same way as we are prepared to support it if our own staff are asked to represent us in some study or at some conference or presentation that is held out of Canberra. It comes back to that whole concept of where we should be putting our money.

Mr Speaker, I think that this report has dealt with these issues in a very effective way. The first recommendation is:

The committee recommends that the Government review per capita grants to schools at all levels to ensure that the grants are sufficient to meet the reasonable needs of the schools for school texts and equipment.

That is the initial first step, the fundamental, and I congratulate the committee for putting that up front as its first recommendation. I want to draw attention to a couple of others. Recommendation 3 states:

The committee recommends that, if voluntary contributions are to remain part of the school funding base, the Government:

(a) make an unequivocal statement in support of the voluntary nature of such contributions; and

(b) that it develop measures to assist parents who do not have the capacity to make the contributions.

Mr Speaker, one of the problems that we still face, and it is dealt with by this committee, is that where the voluntary contributions are made they are made in a way that people do not feel pressured to put more money in. I must say, Mr Speaker, that even in some of our private school systems we have exactly the same issues being dealt with. In the Catholic education system, which is about 80 per cent funded by government, people still are paying their fees. Some people do not have the wherewithal to pay their fees and the Catholic education system has dealt with that situation. It makes allowance for that and it manages to deal with those parents without being, first of all, patronising, without being paternalistic and without demanding of them that they do, even though those people have the choice of going into that system where they may wind up paying more money out of their own pockets. So it is not a situation that we are dealing with separately in the government schools. It is a situation that is being dealt with by others. In some ways I think it is being dealt with more successfully in other areas. That is something that I think this report, taking all the recommendations into account, deals with quite effectively.

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