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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (6 November) . . Page.. 3716 ..

Mr Berry: I do not think I asked that question.

MR SPEAKER: No, but an answer is being given.

MR STEFANIAK: I think you did, Mr Berry. Schools have been provided with a number of other forms of assistance, such as written guidelines for certain things. As I have already indicated, assistance in the form of the help desks and school visits is still readily available.

Mr Berry: When will you review the situation is the real point of the question. When will you review it, or are you just going to let it go?

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Berry, enhanced school-based management started this year. It is still in its infancy and is something which we are monitoring. Obviously, it will be reviewed from time to time. The initial stage has now been implemented. There is ongoing assistance available to schools.

MS McRAE: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Education, Mr Stefaniak. In question time on Tuesday I raised the issue of politicians visiting schools. At that time I referred to a circular that had been written by Fran Hinton to principals and sent out in September this year, which I believe was one of the first times that that sort of instruction has been given, but that is yet to be confirmed. Minister, are you going to write to MLAs and spell out their rights to visit schools, or will you leave it up to principals to tell your office? Is it really the case that you would prefer that politicians not visit?

MR STEFANIAK: In answer to the last part of your question, Ms McRae, not at all. I think you wrote to me in either April or May 1995 - I will have to dig it out - indicating that you would want to visit schools and requesting assistance in relation to that - - -

Ms McRae: And I have been stopped since.

MR STEFANIAK: That was something, I might say, that was eminently proper. I have asked you, Ms McRae, to give me details of how you have been stopped, and whether, in fact, it has been by the school itself, or by the system or the department. The department, as a result of your question, currently is looking at exactly what the procedures were when you people were in and what would be appropriate. As you indicated to me when we were discussing the matter, I think you have been there on a number of occasions. You go to P and C meetings and you go to school board meetings. I would think that is eminently proper.

In terms of visiting schools when there are students there and what role that takes, I think there has been a convention not only in this Assembly but throughout the Commonwealth. There was a protocol, I think, that the department or the Minister of the day advised that a school wants a certain member to go there. That is just common practice, certainly, in the Federal Parliament. Local members write and indicate that they

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