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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2359 ..
MS TUCKER (continuing):
but I want to stress it again-that in fact poverty is hidden in the ACT and is increasing. The government's State of the Territory Report documents the increase in the number of people who are solely dependent on government benefits for support.
We know that that is not a very good situation to be in. We know that over half get into education again. We know that 51 per cent of one-parent families rely on government support for their main source of income. That means 51 per cent of one-parent families are very poor.
Let us look at education. Ms Carnell claimed the reason poverty and disadvantage in the ACT are not real or major issues is because we have a fantastic education system here and we spend more here than anywhere else on education. That may well be the case and I do think we have a good education system here. But there is a very serious incursion of the user-pays principle in that system. That is a problem for people who are impoverished in our community. The poverty task force report stated:
Participants expressed the view that some services provided by our community should be provided to all members of the community, regardless of cost to government and the community. Services that were most often discussed included education, health, housing and income.
Education is not free in the ACT. Even now there is a real problem for particular students to access particular subjects. Forget the voluntary contribution issue and the many debates we have had about that here. The subject levy issue is also of concern and I know that there are families whose children do not access particular subjects they may be interested in because of the cost of those subjects. Often they may be the very subjects that will tap into the ability of a child to find something stimulating and rewarding in the education system. Photography is one subject that I can think of straight away. I know of a family whose child has now dropped out of the school system because of the cost involved. Although the child was interested in continuing, there was an issue about affordability.
If we want to keep children in our schools we have to make sure that everything is available to them across the curriculum regardless of their ability to pay. I understand that this government says they want to encourage students to stay at school, and with the common youth allowance it has become necessary that they do. This is moving into the issue of children at risk and how we are supporting them in the schools. We are in the middle of an inquiry into that issue at the moment.
Once again I would like to say that obviously in many ways the ACT education system has a good record. Mr Stefaniak is always pleased to report to the Assembly the satisfaction rate and the success rate of our ACT system according to parents and students. There is always a small percentage of people who are not happy. What I continually say to Mr Stefaniak, and I am saying it again, is that that is the critical information. The information lies with those people who are not happy with what is happening and who have complaints about your system. I would suggest that the complaints about the education system will give him real information to work with so that those young people and families who are not finding the school system supportive or friendly can be helped.
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