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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 514 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

I noticed that Mr Moore asked a question - I think it was last week - on the issue of letters to parents and how students are reminded of the obligation to pay voluntary contributions. I am concerned that subject levies are still seen to be not voluntary at all. In fact, whatever the letters are that are going out to parents about voluntary contributions, there is still significant pressure being put on the students about subject levies. I think this is absolutely inappropriate. I am very concerned that it is still happening. I know that it is. I know that right now in this town some students are being told that if they do not pay the fees they do not end up getting the subject.

Ms McRae: Ring the school and complain and they stop it. They do stop it. I have rung and complained.

MS TUCKER: I cannot hear what Ms McRae is interjecting, so I will not respond to that. Anyway, we welcome this because there are still some practices occurring that are not good. We do welcome that at least there is some kind of standard letter being sent.

In conclusion, in addition to the issue I raised about how the schools equity fund is being used, I would be interested in hearing from the Minister what progress is being made in implementing the Government's response to other recommendations in the report - for example, the Government's response to recommendation 14; namely, that the Government should prepare a clear policy statement on what essential resources, including equipment, are to be provided to schools, and a commitment to ensure that all schools are funded to provide such resources. In the response to this the Government said that they would be looking at this in conjunction with recommendation 14 and recommendation 15 through the appropriate forums.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (10.40): Mr Speaker, I want to make a brief contribution to this debate. The debate about the voluntary parent contribution scheme is essentially about a particular aspect of the education system, but I would like briefly to put the issues with this system into a broader context.

I expect that members of the Assembly will be interested in, and no doubt even taking further, some of the issues raised in Auditor-General's Report No. 3 of 1997 tabled yesterday and entitled "1995-96 Territory Operating Loss". It is an interesting report. I think the Chief Minister has indicated already that there are some elements of the report which we would all be prepared to see differently, but I think it is worth noting what the report has to say about education. I refer to page 28, where the Commonwealth Grants Commission's assessments are recorded. The report states:

The Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC) assessed the ACT as spending $53.5m above the standardised level of expenditure in 1994-95 on education.

That is education alone expenditure above that level of standardised expenditure. Of course, it is open to us, notwithstanding that, to agree that we should spend more on any particular item within the budget if we so wish, but the Auditor-General makes a further point on page 5 of the report. I quote:

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