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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 4 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 1072 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

I wonder about the youth employment programs and the focus on them. It was certainly a big focus of the last budget. I am wondering whether that is because, with the Federal Government's work for the dole scheme, this Government feels there is going to be reduced pressure on them to find something for our young people to do. We are still waiting for the long awaited social and strategic plan which is increasingly necessary. It is clear in many areas that service delivery is not keeping pace with demand, and we do not have a good framework in which to make decisions. In this budget we also see moves to turn government more into business. We have another concept here, this comparative pricing in this budget, which is a very unsophisticated benchmarking exercise dreamt up by the bean counters.

Education was particularly interesting to look at this year, with rather underhand cuts to the budget. Apparently, now there is a difference between cutting funding to government schooling and cutting funding to the education budget. It looks like $4m will have to be found to cover what were supposed to be new initiatives, literacy and the IT package, as well as debt reduction. The department has to contribute to reducing the ACT's operating loss, which is going to mean staffing cuts and loss of coordination. I believe it will create inefficiencies if we continue to cut the central office of Education.

It is interesting to look at the document that the Government put out recently entitled "Literacy Matters: Preschool-Year 10". On page 3 they say that part of this literacy program is the establishment of a literacy team within the School Programs Branch. The rationale for this team is this:

The establishment of a specific literacy team recognises the need to coordinate the many literacy programs that operate from different sections of the department.

The literacy team is a resource for schools. The team of primary and secondary teachers will work with schools and teachers to facilitate the development of literacy strategies and the implementation of the goals or targets that are articulated in individual school literacy plans.

Later on it says:

The team will support individual schools in the development of their literacy plans and, in particular, work with teachers ...

So this is all about supporting teachers and schools, in this case in the area of literacy. We used to think central department did that. That is what people thought the department did for all areas of schooling. But now it is all right if it is the focus of the Government's attention this year, otherwise we cut funding to that central department and the schools are left on their own. But that is called, "Devolvement to the community schools". That is good. That lets the schools do the work. What has happened to the concept of support and coordination? It is all part of the school-based management project, of course, and it is also, I believe, about putting government at arm's length from individual schools. When they start to lose it, when the pressures are extreme, which will happen in some schools more than others, the Government will say, "They are not very good managers in that school. That is your problem. Go and sort it out".

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