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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (5 September) . . Page.. 3127 ..

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Training) (11.29): I take it that no-one else wants to speak, Mr Speaker. As I said when I tabled our response to the report, we accept much of the thrust, many of the comments, and much of the factual stuff it contains. Indeed, we accept many of the recommendations, but some we do not, as detailed in our reply.

We believe that the report would have presented a more compelling argument and delineated a more productive policy framework if it had focused more directly on the cause and effect of violence in schools. It has focused on one aspect, albeit a very important one, and that is the aspect of disadvantage, and has paid a lot of attention to solutions and strategies to alleviate disadvantage; but it is rather short on analysis and on strategies which focus on reducing violent behaviour. I will come to a couple of aspects which did concern me. I thought it would have been very handy for us, as a government, to have a little bit more detail and concrete suggestions in relation to a couple of very important problems associated with violence which we do come up against in schools. I will come up with that in a minute.

I want to refer to a couple of points that Ms Tucker raised. I think the Government's response in relation to corporal punishment is there, and I note that it is very similar to that of the ALP. Ms McRae made very similar statements to me in relation to that particular issue. I hope I have some good news for Ms Tucker on one point. I have heard, Ms Tucker, although it has not been confirmed, that in relation to the equity fund - you will recall how we were putting in $55,000 to match the Commonwealth's $55,000 - there may well be an increase in Commonwealth funding. If that eventuates - we are sorting that out at present - that would be very good news for everyone in our system.

Mr Moore talked at great length about corporal punishment. I will not go into that again. He also mentioned mandatory reporting. I was interested in and listened intently to his very sensible comments in relation to the primary schools tiffs and the need to distinguish. That is a very important observation from Mr Moore and I think anyone involved in education would tend to agree with him.

There are a couple of things in the report which I would like to address. The report indicates - I think everyone accepts this - at paragraph 2.3 on page 9, referring to a submission from Lyneham High School, that students do spend less than 20 per cent of their time at school and therefore it is mainly outside influence which contributes to violence in schools. I think that is something that we all accept. That is a very interesting and important point to note.

Mr Speaker, several other things in the report show that a lot is occurring in our schools. There are a lot of very good models in other schools which have programs on how to deal with violence. That is something that the schools tend to work out in terms of the departmental guidelines. They do tend to work out their own distinct strategies. They should show Ms Tucker and maybe the other members of the committee who think there is always a need to throw more money at a problem that there are other ways of doing it very effectively.

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