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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 5 Hansard (3 May) . . Page.. 1456 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

a movement of the student population. Some of the neighbourhood schools will become quite small. I understand that the Liberal government likes the idea of closing as many schools as they think possible, given community sentiment.

Mr Humphries: Hardly.

MS TUCKER: We do not have an opposition. I think Mr Moore or someone got up and made that statement. I do not want to misrepresent the government. They do not have a position against closing the schools, and neither do I. But the government has to acknowledge that the free bus initiative is going to have an impact on schools and on school populations. They cannot get away from that, although they might try to. We know that this policy is going to have an impact on school population. That is another thing the community needs to fully understand. The question of school closures will come up again, because we will see this shifting of the school population.

Apart from all of that, we are talking big money for other social initiatives. We are talking about millions and millions of dollars. I think it is $9 million to purchase the buses and something like $4 million for the first year of subsidisation. Who knows how many more millions of dollars as it goes on? The really big question the ACT community would like to be involved in is whether they want to spend the money in education or whether they would rather see those millions of dollars spent inside the schools. When asked that question, a lot of people, not all people, in the public school system and possibly in the private school system-we know they are lobbying for more support within their schools-would prefer to see the money spent within education services, because we have some major problems within our schools which I will not go into now. It is clear from all the committee work I have done and the report that hopefully I will be tabling soon on children at risk within the education system.

The government may well say, "How dare you oppose this. If you encourage more people to get on buses, that is good for the environment." Of course it is, but it is always about understanding all the implications of a policy decision and then making it. I am asking whether the government has considered the implications for educational outcomes and social equity and the local school's existence in the Canberra community.

Another initiative in education is maintenance money. That is really catch-up money. I find that pretty insulting. I think most of the community do. This so-called huge initiative is to help maintain and refurbish schools that have been run down as a result of negligence. The buildings were allowed to run down not just under this government but under Labor as well.

Another issue in education is the CPI. My understanding-I can be corrected if I need to be-is that 2.25 per cent is the CPI figure. I have seen calculations that that is about $500,000 less, which calls into question the government's commitment to maintaining funding in real terms.

I see some pretty serious gaps in the government's initiatives in mental health. I am still waiting for a full implementation of the Nurcombe review of child and adolescent mental health services. There are still a number of major areas in mental health which I believe need attention. I look forward to pursuing those further in estimates.

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