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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (30 November) . . Page.. 3513 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

been received by my office from the Legal Aid Commission to make a request on its behalf to the Commonwealth government for additional funds to be released. I can assure members that I will not hesitate to ask for the release of any available funds from the Commonwealth for the purposes of funding any matters through the commission that deserve that kind of funding.

I am aware that the Commonwealth has attempted to address the problem of large trials consuming a large amount of resources with that kind of reserve. I met with the commission a couple months ago and discussed the general position of the commission. The issue was not expressly raised in that form, but I remain willing to assist the commission to obtain any funds that might be drawn down from the Commonwealth.

I am quite happy to indicate as well that I think the Commonwealth needs to reconsider its policy on legal aid funding. I think the present arrangements are insufficiently flexible. A number of very serious pressures are being placed on not only the Legal Aid Commission in the ACT but commissions around the country. They could be avoided if a different policy approach was taken by the Commonwealth.

MR WOOD: Thank you, minister. I ask a supplementary question. Would you be aware whether, up to date, funds appropriated by the Assembly for defendants facing territory charges have been switched to defendants facing Commonwealth charges?

MR HUMPHRIES: No, I am not aware of that. We now have fairly strict rules about quarantining so-called ACT grants of aid from Commonwealth grants of aid, although obviously they are both administered through the ACT Legal Aid Commission. Where defendants are facing multiple charges, some of which are Commonwealth in nature and some of which are ACT in nature, I know that there are policies for the money to be shared from the two buckets. I will follow up the matter Mr Wood has raised. I am not aware of any such problem, but if there is such a problem I will be happy to alert the Assembly to that matter.

MR RUGENDYKE: My question is to the Minister for Education. Minister, I am aware of a family which removed their son from one of the local private schools in protest at being told that their son would need to pass an IQ test to continue in the school. Could it be true that a school in the ACT would be able to accept only children with a high IQ? If so, do you support this method of student enrolment?

MR STEFANIAK: I note that it was for a private school. If Mr Rugendyke gives me the details confidentially, I can follow up on that. I certainly have not heard of the incident or of anything like it happening before in terms of passing an IQ test. In New South Wales there are some selective schools where students have to do so. I am aware of some non-government schools in the ACT not taking certain students, expelling certain students and things like that; but, in terms of actually sitting for IQ tests, I am not aware of that incident. If you fill me in on it, I will chase it up for you.

MR RUGENDYKE: I have a supplementary question. Minister, if it does turn out that this school is conducting IQ tests of children, is it immoral for this school to advertise its level of scholastic achievement in light of this style of discrimination?

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