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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 737 ..

MR HIRD: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Ms Tucker uses similar resources to me. However, she obviously has greater financial resources than I have, and good luck to her. She has already said that the task that was set for me in this instance was exactly the same as for other members of the committee. True. However, I had the right to change my mind at the conclusion of the hearing. I must compliment the departmental officers and my colleague Mr Stefaniak, the Minister for Education, on the way they argued and put the case. I had an open mind, but certain members of the committee obviously had closed minds. If they did not have closed minds they had tunnel vision.

Mr Speaker, I have the right, under standing order 251, to bring in a dissenting report. Whether I do it during the hearings or whether I do it at the 11th hour, that is my right under standing order 251. Once again, in closing, Mr Speaker, I compliment Mr Berry. I think Mr Berry shot from the hip, but it is the first time that he has admitted he was wrong. He is wrong on numerous occasions. Every member in this house knows that. Mr Berry, I congratulate you for withdrawing your amendment because it was stupid, foolish and improper.

MR BERRY (11.21): I am going to speak briefly to the amendment, Mr Speaker. I welcome the amendment. This follows on from a committee report which has been largely and arrogantly ignored by the Government. This motion really is an echo of the committee's report because the committee made it clear that we did not want the proposal to go forward, and I thought that was arrogantly rejected and cast aside by the Government. We will be supporting this amendment. I think this work for the dole scheme is an ill thought out proposal which will not deliver for working people who are unemployed and are seeking work. It will not help the education system. I think we demonstrated that in our committee deliberations, notwithstanding the contribution that has just been made by Mr Hird.

Mr Hird cruelly accused me of firing from the hip, but if what he said was true I hit my target. The fact of the matter is that this has been an unhappy episode for the school system because they have seen this pressure coming on them to do something that by and large they do not want to do. The outcomes from these things are never positive because you have a whole range of people involved who, with all the best wishes in the world so far as public education is concerned, are being forced to do something which distracts them from the main game, and that is public education. So I welcome the amendment and Labor will support it.

I will just remind members of an article which appeared in the Canberra Times this morning on page 3. It is in relation to the Minister for Workplace Relations, Mr Peter Reith, and his department being heavily castigated by the Senate Committee of Privileges for the unauthorised disclosure of a draft committee report last year. It is headed "Reith, department found in contempt" and refers to a range of issues. I quote:

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