Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1869 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

To date, we have had a few individual problems. There have been a few schools - and they have generally been small schools - that have had a few problems, and the department has instructions in place to help them. In the vast majority of cases, we have seen people within the school take to this, not quite like a duck to water, but certainly appreciating the increased flexibility and, in many instances, the ability of the school to have the discretion to spend up to $5,000 on maintenance and things like that, whereas, before, they were restricted to $1,500. I have seen already some instances of schools doing some very good things as a result of the increased flexibility that they have.

Ms Tucker mentioned market principles. She criticises Mrs Carnell and this Government in relation to that; but I suppose she has a hang-up on the other side of the fence, in terms of being overly negative about them. I do not think market principles are the be-all and end-all, Ms Tucker. There are a lot of factors that come into account here; but, certainly, I do not think you should discount them as much as you perhaps do. One of the things we have been able to do here, and I think it must be apparent from the procedures the department has already put in place, is learn from mistakes in other areas. We can learn from mistakes made by New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Perhaps Ms Tucker concentrated a little bit too much on the negatives there, rather than on the actual positives.

In relation to the schools equity fund, as Ms McRae indicated, whilst it is not a huge amount of money, there are certainly a lot of complexities there, and a lot of work has already been put in by a lot of people, in terms of trying to get that right. Ms Tucker talked about what she called "stuff-ups". In actual fact, the special committee that is looking at that now is still to report to me. After all the hype and the hoo-ha in relation to that, on all the information provided to me, including information from the union, it basically got back to the fact that the only actual figures, apart from hearsay and anecdotal evidence, that anyone actually produced were those 1991 figures. There was one document - a 1995 document - where one suburb in the far south of Tuggeranong was mentioned. They were unemployment figures, but none of the other subjects were mentioned.

Ms Tucker: You do not look at the situation?

MR STEFANIAK: We are looking at the situation, Ms Tucker, and I will tell you this too: Because I am interested in the welfare of the students and because we are not talking about a huge amount of money but we want to distribute it as fairly as possible, I will err on the side of giving people the benefit of the doubt in relation to this. It is interesting to note that Ms McRae was quite right here. It is not an easy process. The specialist group - comprising the union, principals, P and C representatives and the department - which is examining that and reviewing it is not finding it an easy task. But the ministerial advisory committee is looking at the long term and at the best way of doing that. I think it is handy to have a small group to actually suggest the allocations. The group I have suggested, of those representatives from those four most important areas within the education set-up, is keen to continue in that role. I see great merit in that. So, I think, what we will end up with on a permanent basis is a very effective use of that schools equity fund, which I think is a very good initiative and will greatly assist in this particular area.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .