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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 3 Hansard (6 March) . . Page.. 586 ..

MR STEFANIAK: That is why, Mr Hargreaves, we had monitoring this summer. Guess what the monitoring showed?

Mr Hargreaves: It was 40 degrees at Charles Conder. Have you been there?

MR STEFANIAK: I am glad you mentioned Charles Conder, Mr Hargreaves. The monitoring showed, as of last week, that on eight occasions Gordon was over 30 degrees. I would expect Charles Conder to be in a reasonably similar boat, Mr Hargreaves. I think they were up to about six days; in fact, they came second. Indeed, in the debate last week, someone made the reasonably sensible point that schools are different and there are different circumstances attached to each school.

Obviously, schools in a greenfields area in the far south and maybe some schools in the far north will have different problems and different concerns from other schools and it is reasonable to expect the monitoring to show, and that is why we monitor, that those schools will be the ones where the temperature is higher. They are the ones where, if action is to be taken, it should be taken first. Basically, that is occurring. The expenditure will be over four years. The first $200,000 will come from the 2001-02 budget and will be taken from minor capital works. I hope that you will vote for the budget, Mr Kaine; I think you usually do. Indeed, given the way our capital works budgets work, if there is any leeway this financial year as a result of some jobs being finished or giving us a bit of flexibility there, we might even be able to do something before the end of the financial year. Certainly, we will have money for it under capital works in the forthcoming budget because of this government's decision to allocate money to it in the budget.

The schools resources group will look at these matters on a case-by-case basis. It is called the transportable amenities improvement program. Not in all instances will schools want to avail themselves of the money for airconditioning. There are other things that might well go to assist in the amenities of particular transportables. Again, every school is different and every situation is different. All in all, I think that there has been an indication that this government is prepared to listen-

Mr Berry: Ha, ha!

MR STEFANIAK: You might laugh, Mr Berry, but I can remember some amazingly stupid and stubborn things that you did in the Follett government. Take nurses, for example. You are blaming Mr Moore about nurses. Look at what you did; it was absolutely appalling.

Mr Berry: They would have me back with open arms tomorrow.

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Berry says they would have him back with open arms. How incredibly churlish you were. Perhaps you should learn a bit of manners. At least the people on the Gordon school board had the decency to appreciate what this government does. It shows that we listen. It also shows that we are capable of calling people in and going through-

Mr Berry: You had to be ground into the dirt.

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