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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1934 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

The real issues that he has to face are how he is going to maintain harmony within the parent-teacher community and within the community at large, not how he is going to exacerbate those tensions and make the breakdown between those two groups so strong that the long-term consequences are going to take far longer to repair than it will take to resolve the immediate gains or non-gains of the teachers within the strike. The relationship between the parents and the teachers has been very gingerly managed by the teachers and parents. For the most part, the parents have shown a remarkable tolerance of, and interest in, the teachers' struggle. That should send a message to the Minister that most parents seem to be at least sympathetic to, if not on side with, the teachers' claims. What this shows, if the Minister genuinely claims that there is a problem with the budget - which, of course, we dispute - is that he has not sufficiently explained to the parents and the teachers or to the community at large why this money should be denied to the teachers, why the money was ever denied in the first place when the budget was set, and why this Government is so defiant in the light of clear messages from the entire Assembly.

When Labor was faced with the same pressure, Labor acquiesced. This Government thumbs its nose at the Assembly and says, "No, we could not possibly do what the Assembly says". It then runs around saying, "Shock, horror! What would you do if you were in charge?". We sent a clear message as to what we wanted done and what the majority of the Assembly members wanted done. As a result of the Estimates Committee report, it was quite clear - - -

Mrs Carnell: That $3.8m has nothing to do with the teachers.

MS McRAE: It has everything to do with it. From the very beginning, that is where the faith of the education sector in this Government broke down. From the very beginning, that set extremely bad relationships between the education sector, the parents and the Government. There was an act of bad faith from the very beginning, which was enacted again after the Estimates Committee report came out, which set the tone for what this Government considers to be the inconsequence and the lack of importance of both the Assembly's views and the general community's views.

Mrs Carnell: You do believe that the Government is responsible for its own budget.

MS McRAE: Mrs Carnell, of course I believe that the Government is responsible for its own budget; but you have set the standards on that. You have led the way in saying all the time that you believe in the supremacy of the Assembly. We saw how hollow those words were. You have been guided and directed; there have been motions from this Assembly giving a clear indication of where the community views are; and it was up to you to accept those messages.

Of course it is your budget, and that is why we do not seek to intervene in this dispute. It is your budget. You know exactly how much money is there. You know exactly what sorts of trade-offs you need. You know exactly what you can do. What we are talking about today is the management of this dispute, which is showing very dangerous signs, when Mr Stefaniak is taking sides with various groups and urging them to intervene.

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