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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 4 Hansard (18 April) . . Page.. 1062 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

The Government did not grapple with this issue; the Government did not take this issue seriously. It is absolutely clear that, if your child goes to school in one place, the experience of schooling will be very different from that in a school in another place. It is no good telling me that only 2 per cent of the income comes from the P and C funds. It is that 2 per cent that makes these enormous differences in the type of experience that the child will have at school. I know that everybody frowns at that idea, but the teachers are there, yes; the books and the equipment, to a certain extent, are there, yes; but the access to computers, the access to art material, the access to excursions, the access to pleasantly shaded school grounds come from those 2 per cent funds. The educational outcome of a child who goes to school in a place where those resources are not available, compared to the experience of a child who goes to school where those resources are available, can be affected. That is why this is an absolutely crucial issue.

The base allocation of funds to schools was questioned by the PAC. Did we see any response to that by the Government? No. What the PAC report indicated was that the allocation of per capita funding to primary schools, to high schools and to the colleges did not seem to be an equitable one. Did the Government take that seriously? No. It said, "We have made our money available. Schools are autonomous. End of story". There was a very basic challenge being put out by the PAC, and the Government threw up its hands and said, "Too hard". Of course it is hard; of course it is hard to perhaps turn around and say to a college, "We are going to diminish your per capita funding and we are going to increase a primary school's allocation". But to not even discuss the issue is what is at fault in this response. We are talking about basic rights to education. The PAC report asked the Government to examine what were the basic bits and pieces - to use perhaps a demeaning term for what is really being talked about - and to look at the very basics that should be there as a minimum right to every student.

We are a long way from providing everybody with a pencil, a book and a bit of chalk to write on a blackboard; the game has moved on. In a sense, that was why the crisis was there before the last election, because school after school was grappling with the issue of computer education and the depth of resources that are now needed. We are now finding that the very bases, the very tools for education, are not being provided any longer; that some children have access to computers and some children do not. It is as basic as that. The Government's response was absolutely contemptuous: "Yes, we are cabling schools, but it is in the context of there being sufficient funding. That will be done in time".

It is a ducking of the basic issue to not look at what are the elementary resources that are necessary in schools. Computers fall into that category. As Mr Moore pointed out, photocopiers fall into that category. The new process of not replacing photocopiers, of leaving it to the P and C, has created major nightmares in schools. That was there in evidence before the committee - over 80 submissions. Did the Government read them? No. Did it take them seriously? No. Of course the issues are hard; of course photocopiers are expensive. But do we seriously say to our children, "If you go to a new school your photocopier will work. If you go to that school your photocopier will not."? Perhaps you could take a taxi to Richardson from Scullin and borrow the photocopier at Richardson. What nonsense! The Government has refused to take up the basic challenge. This is the first major review that has been done. There is no evading of a year's accrual of evidence which says that this needs a fundamental reappraisal.

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