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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (16 February) . . Page.. 140 ..

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, I do not care what people in Tuggeranong - - -

MR SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order, Mr Berry.

Mr Berry: Is he going to answer the question or not?

MR SPEAKER: He has. Do you want to ask a supplementary question?

MR BERRY: It is a little bit hard to ask a supplementary question when an answer was not given, but I will give it a go. See if you can stick to the answer to the question and listen to the detail of the question, Minister. That is one of the things you learn in schools - to listen. Is it not a fact - I will say it slowly - that the methodology used to estimate excess space in schools is outdated and fails to take account of modern developments in teaching methods and the large expansion of computer use in schools and that we are simply looking at a repeat of the ACTEW debate, where the sale was not on the agenda, according to our Chief Minister, until it suddenly became urgent. Is this not just a repeat of the ACTEW debate? What have you got on your agenda - nothing or anything?

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Berry, I know you have a suspicious mind but we genuinely want to have a community debate about this. The agenda is to generate a discussion. Mr Berry, could you just repeat the end of your question, because I have a very good answer. Repeat the last part of your supplementary question.

Mr Berry: Is it not a fact that the methodology used to estimate excess space in schools is outdated and fails to take into account modern developments in teaching methods and the large expansion of computer use in schools and that we are simply looking at a repeat of the ACTEW debate, where the sale was not on the agenda? That is, nothing is on your agenda one minute but it could be later. That sale was not on the agenda, according to the Chief Minister, until it suddenly became an urgent issue. Can we expect a repeat of this?

MR STEFANIAK: ACTEW - that was the one. The answer to that, of course, is no. We are not looking at a repeat of what you think the ACTEW debate was all about, Mr Berry. I make no comment further on what you think it was all about - no way. What we are looking at, Mr Berry, is getting a community debate in relation to this important issue and getting ideas from the community. There are a lot of aspects to this. There are some points validly raised by the primary school principals. There are points raised by the P&C. There are points in relation to the relevant importance given to access. The big challenge - this is the thing we want to get from all of this - is to get people's ideas on the best way to maximise the educational opportunities for our students.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, I think he might have missed the first part of the question again.

MR SPEAKER: No, he did not. The first part of the question is out of order. It asked for an opinion.

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