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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 2 Hansard (28 February) . . Page.. 408 ..
MR BERRY (continuing):
"parading" I think is a cruel statement which undermines the standing that you have had previously of being a thoughtful person.
The other thing Mrs Burke said which I think needs a response was her harsh, Thatcherite comments about the use of children in this issue. The fact of the matter is that kids are as entitled to demonstrate as anybody else, and there is nothing wrong with kids exercising solidarity and demonstrating in favour of their futures.
Now, if you do not want to see kids joined together in solidarity, demonstrating-apparently successfully in this case, according to the bleating we have heard from the other side-if you do not want to see kids encouraged to perform in solidarity and to demonstrate against the people they think are their enemies, well it will be a sad day for our future, because our future is based on solidarity, whether the Thatcherite conservatives opposite want it or not.
I heard, too, that Mr Humphries said that the schools can borrow some money out of next year's allotment of funds; they can ring up the Minister for Education and borrow some money off him out of next year's. That would mean that, while they would not have to take out their initiatives that might deliver quality education in this year's budget, they would have to delete them next year. This is just a nonsense. This is an issue of principle.
I heard Mr Humphries say it is okay for the government to pick up the responsibility for heating but apparently he does not think so for cooling. He might know-or he might come to the conclusion if he thought about it a bit-that a hot classroom can be equally as dangerous to your health as a cold one, or more so in certain circumstances. So I think it is about time that there was a reality check amongst the government to take into account the quality of education that we deliver to our children. This is no more than creating a level playing field so that the government picks up its responsibility for all schools across the ACT in relation to the environment the students have to work in-no more than that. It is about providing a better outcome for kids, a better quality of environment for them to work in, and therefore a better educational outcome. I do not know why the conservatives opposite are being so miserable about this. There is no reason for it, and for the life of me I cannot work out why the Minister for Education struggles so strenuously against what is a reasonable cause.
Amendment agreed to.
Motion, as amended, agreed to.
Land (Planning and Environment) Legislation Amendment Bill 2000
Debate resumed from 29 November 2000, on motion by Ms Tucker:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR CORBELL
(4.00): I rise today to indicate that the Labor Party will be supporting this legislation. We have considered closely the proposal that Ms Tucker has put forward in this bill, and on balance it is clear that it will provide for an improvement for those residents who are currently detrimentally affected by single-dwelling development
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