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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2097 ..

Question put:

That the motion (Mr Berry's) be agreed to.

The Assembly voted -

AYES, 8	 	NOES, 9

Mr Berry	Mrs Carnell
Ms Follett	Mr Cornwell
Ms McRae	Mr De Domenico
Mr Moore	Mr Hird
Mr Osborne	Ms Horodny
Ms Reilly	Mr Humphries
Mr Whitecross	Mr Kaine
Mr Wood		Mr Stefaniak
		Ms Tucker

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Training) (4.11): Pursuant to order of the Assembly of 18 April, I present the revised Government response to Report No. 11 of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts entitled "Voluntary Parent Contribution Scheme in the ACT School System". I move:

That the Assembly takes note of the paper.

I am tabling this report several days late, and for that I apologise. I thank members for allowing the extension. Additional time was required to work through a wide range of possible options to address the Assembly's concerns about voluntary parent contributions to schools.

At the very heart of this whole debate about voluntary contributions lies the issue of equity. What the Assembly has communicated to the Government is that it really wants to assist those schools with the students most in need. I believe that we all endorse the proposition that all children should have equal access to quality education programs. I will speak later, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, about the extensive equity-type funding already allocated by the Government to address educational disadvantage. However, before I discuss equity funding in greater detail, I would like to sketch in a little background.

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