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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2103 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

We have to find a cost-effective way to ensure that every child has equal access to information technology and information technology training. This report goes some way to recognising the rights of all students to a free choice of educational subjects and options regardless of their capacity to pay, but rightly points out the difficulties that face some schools, some communities and some parents in meeting those costs. It comes some way in trying to deal with those. I will be very interested to see the ongoing work that is being heralded by this new response.

MR MOORE (4.31): I am delighted that the Assembly sent this matter back to the Government and asked them to rethink the issue. After having just had a very brief reading of the response and having heard the Minister's speech, certainly some positive things have come out of it. I think the development that we see of best practice letters on voluntary contribution is an important issue. I think Ms Tucker recently quoted in this Assembly from a letter which had gone out to parents in terms of the voluntary contributions and which was entirely inappropriate. I also think the establishment of a schools equity fund is something on which the Government needs to be congratulated. I think those two components of this response are indeed an interesting start.

I also notice the Government's response in terms of information technology and advice that further research is going on in that area. We have a great responsibility in our schools, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, to ensure that our children are au fait with information technology and that some students are not given great advantage over others. From a personal perspective, I know that my children are particularly comfortable with information technology. They are so comfortable that when we were linked to the Internet only a short while ago they immediately were able to go and search it without any effort whatsoever. But we have computers in our house, and have had since they were old enough to use them. There are many children in this Territory who do not have that kind of exposure and must have it through the school system.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I think it is an important step forward that the Government has responded positively to those prime elements of Report No. 11 of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. We were most concerned about the equity issue. That was taken into account first of all with the primary response of the Government. It is something that, no matter who is in government, we are going to have to keep an eye on so as to ensure that there is general equity.

It is education that provides the fundamental issue of social equity. It allows individuals, rather than just their families, some opportunity to advance themselves. It is about enhancing individuals to the farthest possible extent and ensuring that education outcomes are equitable right across the spectrum. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I think this is an important first step in as far as I have been able to read the report, and I look forward to going through the rest of it more thoroughly. It is appropriate to congratulate the Minister on a much more positive response than the first time round.

Debate (on motion by Ms Tucker) adjourned.

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