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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2236 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

I noticed today Mrs Carnell saying very strongly that the Labor Party were irresponsible in using someone's name in this place at question time. I was reminded of the scandalous affidavits that were dropped on the desks in this place by the Minister to try to avoid a censure motion on his mismanagement. I was reminded of the scandalous comments the Minister made when members of the school community were sitting in the public gallery. It did not sound very convincing to hear Mrs Carnell being so shocked and horrified by the mention of someone's name in this place by the Labor Party. Another issue that was raised during the Estimates Committee hearings concerned remarks by the chief executive of the Education Department that in the future we may have fewer teachers and more paraprofessionals. I am very concerned about that trend as well. Mr Moore made that point pretty clearly here. I would support that concern. I think we have to be very careful how far we move down that track.

In conclusion, on government schooling, I would just like to say again that I believe that to have a civil society you have to give the absolute highest priority to education within it, particularly the public education system. I repeat: We do have a scholarship system run by a charity, the Smith Family, to help students get through our public education system. I think the fact that we have come to that is absolutely shocking. In fact, I was talking to an elderly man who has always been a Liberal voter, interestingly enough, and when he saw that pamphlet for the scholarship for the public school system he said, "This will change my vote".

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Training) (5.53): I think I might deal, firstly, with Mr Moore's comments, then Ms Tucker's and then Ms McRae's. I thank members for their comments - in most instances, anyway. There were some quite constructive comments. Mr Moore is very concerned, and I would suspect rightly so, in relation to the Federal Government's enrolment benchmarking adjustments scheme. As he is well aware, I reaffirmed the Government's commitment to public education, as did all the other State and Territory Ministers, at the recent MCEETYA meeting in Darwin. Indeed, it was most relevant, I think, that the coalition Education Ministers called upon the Commonwealth to recognise the impact of the EBA scheme on public education and the need to review its scheme. That scheme does need reviewing; it needs further clarification. State and Territory governments contribute over $13 billion to public education, while the Commonwealth contributes some $1.4 billion, or about 10 per cent, in specific payments. The current proposals under that EBA scheme serve to penalise State and Territory systems, despite increasing enrolments. We feel that strategy is manifestly wrong. The Commonwealth does have a role to play in coordinating some approaches to educational policies. However, it is the States and the Territories who provide the lead in setting educational policy in Australia.

The Commonwealth, I understand, gives the ACT only about $352 for each primary school student and about $520 for each secondary school student. However, under their scheme, the proposal is to deduct $1,700 per student from government school funding in respect of shifts in enrolments. There might be a glimmer of hope there, in that the Commonwealth indicated that it would look at it again and there could be room for some adjustment. I would hope, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, that that does occur and that where there is room for adjustment it will be made. It may well be that that adjustment will serve the Territory well because at this stage we have not seen any particularly

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