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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (14 June) . . Page.. 1777 ..
MR MOORE (continuing):
Finally, the disappointing part of this is that, in the system we have got here in the ACT, we do not have the non-government schools tied in, and we ought to be assessing non-government schools as well. Mr Stefaniak says they are starting to cooperate. I am of the view that, if they are not going to be cooperative-and I suppose it is for the next Assembly-legislation ought to be put in place to require it to be done in the same way as for government schools. If we genuinely believe in open government and if we genuinely want to be able to deliver the best outcomes for all the students in the system, let's be open about it. Let's see what is happening and let the community apply the pressure where it needs to.
MR OSBORNE (5.35): Mr Moore is proposing an interesting theory, and I want to pursue it a bit further. The main reason behind putting the figures out is to let people see what is happening in the schools so they can put pressure on the bloke who is being paid as education minister to do his job. It is an interesting theory. Let us take it a bit further with the police crime figures. Let's put them out and wait until it is a-
Mr Moore: We do.
Mr Smyth: We do.
MR OSBORNE: No. The reason they put them out is so that the people of, for example, Florey, have to put pressure on the police minister because the crime figures are so high. That is the only way the police minister will do his job. That is what you are proposing. The education minister gets paid money to do his job. He should be looking at these figures and saying, "We've got a problem; we've got to fix it." I have got no problem with you compiling the data, having a look at it and doing your job, but I think what it does is label schools. We all know that, nationally, the Liberal Party's policy is about looking after the private schools and giving them all the money.
I am a bit disappointed that it appears that this Liberal government-this minister-is quite content to label disadvantaged schools. He is paid as the education minister, and I think he should do his job. Community pressure should not be required to make him fix it. I think Mr Berry's motion is sensible. I, too, have had disagreements with the P&C Council and the education minister.
Mr Stefaniak: You ask why we do not publish league tables. You cannot get a league table that will list that--
MR OSBORNE: For once, listen to the debate. For once, I actually agree with them. You are paid to be our education minister. Look at the stats, do your job and fix it. Don't wait for the parents to approach you and say, "Our school's in crisis," to do your job. Why don't you listen to the debate next time?
MS TUCKER
(5.37): The government has made much of the complexity of literacy and numeracy assessment as conducted in the ACT and the protocols it has established for reporting to parents on the literacy and numeracy outcomes in ACT government schools. Some members of the government claim to be against league tables, although Mr Moore has just appeared to become a champion of them and, also, I think Mr Smyth, when he said it was a good thing for Mount Druitt to have been exposed in the papers in that way
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