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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4341 ..

MR BERRY (4.28): Labor will be supporting this Bill, Mr Speaker. We recognise that which has been said in the Auditor-General's report, and we have also considered the issues which were raised by the relevant committee which oversighted the matter as well. It separates the management stream of the International Hotel School from the Canberra Institute of Technology by creating a new piece of legislation which is quite separate from the Canberra Institute of Technology Act 1987.

This hotel school was set up with all parties in this Assembly agreeing to its aims and objectives. Indeed, it had the fulsome support of the Liberal Party. The school's operations have been a disappointment; nevertheless the school has the potential to create something good for the ACT. As a significant number of taxpayers' dollars are invested in it, I am sure we are all committed to persisting with it to achieve the aims which were set out at the outset.

Mr Speaker, the Minister's speech contained a couple of rhetorical and political remarks which I think are regrettable. If the Minister had been honest I am sure that he would have accepted some of the responsibility for the school's difficulties, given that the Government has been in charge of the school for all of its recruitment period. I need say no more than that in relation to the Minister's speech.

I have had some discussions with the Minister about one area of the proposed legislation in respect of the constitution of the board of management. As the board of management and the school will be bestowing degrees and awards to successful students at the school, it seemed to me to be appropriate that one of the non-executive members should be a representative of a tertiary education institution. An amendment has been circulated in my name to accomplish that. It is understood that in many cases the board would have people with those sorts of qualifications, but it seemed to us, at least, that there ought to be a requirement to ensure that a representative of a tertiary education institution could not be overlooked in the formation of a board in the future. Mr Speaker, I will leave it at that.

MR DE DOMENICO (Minister for Urban Services) (4.32): I appreciate the fact that it seems that many members of this Assembly now see the benefit of what the Government, and Mr Stefaniak, in particular, who is about to conclude this debate, are going to do. I am delighted that we do have the Australian International Hotel School. I thoroughly recommend it to as many people as I can in terms of the facilities there for both the students and the everyday Canberran who wants a fantastic meal. It is a fantastic place to look at in terms of what our building and construction industry can do in refurbishing what was a magnificent old building into a magnificent new building, and a building with great history. We in this Assembly ought to be doing all we can to make sure that the AIHS succeeds. With the new structure that the Minister wants to put in place, there is no reason why we cannot market it better than we have in the past. It obviously remains a jewel in the crown in terms of what we can offer people from interstate and overseas in education in an area that is very highly regarded, and in an area that Australians are starting to be very good at.

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