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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2352 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

page 239 of Budget Paper No 4. Because there had been some controversy about the provision of indigenous education programs within the school system, one's eye immediately settled on the line "expanding indigenous education programs". When reading a budget paper you would think, "Well, that sounds like a good idea." But how much is allocated for that? When you search through the budget papers you find that the answer is: not a dollar. Yet we are told that this is a highlight. Expanding indigenous education programs by not one dollar is a great way to win the mind of the casual reader! Is this another case where we might need to issue a corrigendum to strike out that line? The minister and his department feebly argued, no, that really meant they were going to expand existing programs, they will not be new programs, and there was no new money for this purpose.

Whatever the excuses, I think this Assembly probably deserves a corrigendum that strikes that line out because there really is not anything in the budget which will provide anything additional, certainly no new money, for expanding indigenous education programs. That tells us a lot about what we need to know about the appropriations for this department.

There have been several mistakes in the budget papers, particularly in this portfolio area. As I mentioned, more mistakes will be brought to your attention shortly. I draw the Assembly's attention to an election promise that was made in relation to league tables at schools. The education minister said in 1997:

We know what league tables do in an education system. Because some people have the necessary financial wherewithal and mobility, a system which compares schools, teachers and students can cause a run away from schools which are the subject of poor outcomes in the league tables. The minister made the promise that it would not happen and all of a sudden he has put in place a discussion process which suggests this is a possible outcome.

Superficially, some members in the community might say, "That is a good idea. We can find out which is the best school for our kids and send them there." But what it really means is that people down the bottom end of the socioeconomic scale always get left in the school which is performing badly. The rest of them bolt and go to schools which are performing better. You end up with poorer schools with poorer outcomes. I cannot for the life of me see how a government that says that it is building social capital-

Mr Moore: So you would hide the information?

MR BERRY: No, it is not about hiding information at all.

Mr Moore: But that's what it requires.

MR BERRY: So the rumour is true: you think that league tables are a good idea.

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