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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (7 December) . . Page.. 3823 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

I think it is ludicrous to say that this inquiry is something that the government should do. You could say that about anything that the committees do. Obviously, we have committees because Assembly members might not be terribly happy with exactly everything the government or the departments actually do. If people feel that way, well why on earth do they criticise the government when it delivers its strategies?

As Mr Moore says, the government would have a significant input to this inquiry. We do have a number of ideas, but we want to see what everyone else thinks. It is an issue of crucial importance. To say that it is something just the government should do is ludicrous. Committees of this place have taken on for themselves references of a lot less importance than this one.

It is not as though the government refers a lot to this committee. The last referral to it was back in 1999 and that was on pre - school guidelines, which the committees has reported on. I cannot think of anything that has been referred to this committee by the government since last year. This motion has been on the notice paper for a while. I have deliberately not put it on for Assembly business for some sitting days now because I know that the committee has been doing other things, but I do want members of the committee to look at this very important issue.

I am flexible about the time taken, but I think it is crucially important and I remind members that it is now December 2000 and the government has not referred anything this year to the education committee. We have not referred a great deal of stuff to it. It has self - referred a fair bit. That is fine; that is the committee's prerogative. But I think it is ridiculous if a government cannot refer something that it regards as being very important and in the interests of out education system.

I would ask members to vote in favour of this matter going to the committee. I reiterate that I am flexible in terms of the reporting date. I think that the issue is important. The territory is very different nationally. I certainly hope that a federal committee will look at it nationally. There is a lot of work to be done on this issue. It is very important that we address this issue and we have as much input and assistance from as many people as possible. It is an important reference; I do press the point. I thank members for the debate.

Question put:

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