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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 1 Hansard (13 February) . . Page.. 84 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Of course, we know that things like capital works are included there, and we know too that the ACT has not built terribly many schools in recent times. We also know from some recent figures quoted by the P&C that that does not include things like superannuation, and the ACT spends twice as much on that as other states, so caution needs to be exercised there. One thing we will certainly agree on is that other states are starting to spend more on education, and, Mr Deputy Speaker, I think that's a good thing. I think they need to catch up. That is very important.

This government has certainly got nothing to be worried about in terms of its commitment. Its commitment has been an ongoing one, and it has been an ongoing one in difficult times. Every year we have seen a budget brought down we have had an Estimates Committee. We have had annual reports. They are scrutinised. Those are the real figures. We did a KPMG audit, as it were, back in March 2000 to address some similar concerns about education funding, and what have we found out? Not only has this government, in six budgets, maintained its commitment to maintain education expenditure in real terms; it in fact spent some $37 million as at March 2000 over and above that. When you add the $3.2 million extra which we put in in the May budget on top of what was in the forward estimates for the teachers pay rise, that amounts to around $40 million over and above our promise.

During most of those years the ACT had a deficit budget, having inherited $344 million from Labor. We gave education a priority during those hard times. I think that is an irrefutable fact which has been proved by the scrutiny of each and every one of our budgets since that time-six budgets plus that KPMG audit. So I think it is rather churlish of Mr Berry to come in here and suggest that we have dropped education expenditure. Of course, we have announced more initiatives in this budget, the major one being the smaller class sizes. I am not going to go into that because we had that discussion in question time.

Mr Berry talked about building confidence in the system. I think people need to be rather careful when they talk about education and constantly harp about what they perceive to be problems in the government system. It can backfire rather badly on the system. It is a good system. Benchmarks are important. I will deal with a few benchmarks shortly which can show just how effective our system is and how important it is that we maintain it. That is something that this government will do.

Mr Berry said we did not have a commitment to public education and that we did nothing with the federal government. Well, the EBA has been abolished, Mr Deputy Speaker. I had a little bit to do with that, I would like to think, in terms of persuading my federal colleague on that one, along with a couple of other Liberal state ministers. I would like to mention that and the fact that we were never affected by it also as a result of some fairly effective representation from the ACT.

Mr Deputy Speaker, when we talk about benchmarks in education we need to look at the broad picture of what we are seeking as educational outcomes for our kids. We want to ensure that all our students in our schools receive an education that sets them on the right pathway for a broad and enriched life. We want to help our young people develop the strengths and the skills that they need to go forward into the community and so that they can make the most of life's opportunities. We want to encourage our young people to be self-confident and to make the most of their opportunities. Those

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