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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1924 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

activity in schools, which was implemented after a lot of consultation. That was a very good proposal which the former chief executive officer of the department actually referred to as brilliant and which a large number of people, including Ms McRae and Ms Tucker, were involved in. That, of course, is largely on hold as a result of the bans.

We have recognised the fact that so many people in our system need vocational education and training, which is becoming part of a nationwide push. Significant improvements were made in that area last year, but the bans on work experience are causing problems. I cannot recall the previous Government doing things like giving schools a large number of computers. In the middle of these bans, 180 computers have been supplied to schools. I think you are way off target, Mr Berry. Mr Berry also needs to realise that the action in the ACT is part and parcel of a priority one national campaign. I will say a bit more about that later.

This is a very strange motion from Mr Berry. What useful purpose can it serve? All he has come up with so far is really a lot of hot air which will only make life even more difficult for our young people trying to achieve - this is relevant to the first part of the motion - excellence in sport. I do not think what he is saying is in the least bit helpful in settling the current industrial dispute between the Education Union and the Government. There certainly have been a lot of meetings between the Government and the union and between the department and the union, and they will continue. The picture is not quite as Mr Berry paints it.

Mr Berry's motion uses the word "regret". If Mr Berry has anything to regret, it really should be his activities in the past as Minister for Health. He regrets what he sees as my actions in pitting sports workers and volunteers against teachers. I think that is quite spurious. Quite clearly, nothing that either the Government or I have done has attempted to do so. I cannot recall having instructed any teachers to do anything, either in sport or in any other way, in relation to the bans. A number of sporting groups, especially those involved at the interstate level, have been very concerned about the bans and have been keen to see kids go away. Mr Berry, you might realise that a number of teachers in fact have taken kids away already for interstate sport. I remind you that the Government has a duty to the children of this Territory, in both government and non-government schools, to provide a proper education and to provide a full education. We would be failing in our duty if we did not do everything we possibly could to assist in that regard, irrespective of whether there was industrial action in the system.

Interstate sport is quite different from the other sporting areas which are very badly affected by the bans. In fact, interschool sport has effectively ceased. Mr Berry might like to note that there has been no action by the Government on that. No-one is accusing the Government of trying to circumvent the bans in that area. With interstate sport, we are not dealing with just school students in the government system. We are dealing with students in the private system as well. That system is not affected by these bans, or is not meant to be. Teachers in the private system are not taking industrial action. Those kids have a right to expect that their education will not be affected by disputes going on in another system. Indeed, kids in the government system, who often have only one chance of going away, deserve, if at all possible, to be given that chance. That is what the voluntary sporting groups have been bringing about in a number of instances. Mr Berry, I think you need to take note of that.

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