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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 7 Hansard (20 June) . . Page.. 2155 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

anyone has. We were marginally behind on one strand-I think it was New South Wales last year-but we have certainly topped that. We are now in front there.

Many of our students get places in international competitions. Although a small system, quite clearly we are recognised as the best in the country. Our college system is clearly recognised as the best in the country. It is something that other people emulate. We have had some world class firsts in terms of IT competencies, for example, for year 10. New South Wales and other states are now starting to follow our lead. I think the list goes on there, so do not talk to me about outcomes, Mr Stanhope. We have delivered on those and we continue to deliver. If we happen to be re-elected at the next election we will deliver on more outcomes as well.

Mr Speaker, I am rather amazed to hear Labor say we should now be spending more on education. I will table it next tomorrow during the debate, but there was an interesting article by the union after we announced our kindergarten to year 2 program. They said that that sets the benchmark. The government has set the benchmarks for every other party in this Assembly. Are Mr Berry and Mr Stanhope trying to play a little bit of catch-up?

It is interesting to note, Mr Speaker, that they seem to have accepted all of our initiatives, which they say amount to $40 million. Their figures are a bit wrong there because I think they only have us spending a bit more than $3 million on additional capital and minor new works, when I think it is $7.9 million, the additional $5 million being put in just before the budget was finalised. Apart from that, they seem to have listed the initiatives and the money there fairly accurately.

Let's take their figure of $40 million on additional initiatives. Total additional expenditure on education, and that includes the CIT, will be $91.5 million over the next four years. In anyone's language that is a huge injection of funds, especially when something like $417 million or $420 million is the figure now in terms of a base. That is a very significant injection of funds.

In what sort of a climate did we manage not only to maintain education expenditure in real terms, as we have done during the term of this government, but actually increase it by about $40 million over and above the CPI? Have a look at the KPMG report of last year, fellows, if you want to check that one. In what sort of economic climate did we do that? We did that in a fairly difficult climate for most of the time. We were left with a $344.5 million deficit by these guys opposite. When the territory got self-government we were in surplus. The books were there. We actually had a bit of money in the bank. Well, they managed to whittle that down soon enough. What confidence can anyone have in terms of this opposition, if they come to government after 20 October, having the financial ability to do what they say they are going to do?

I will come back to Mr Berry's and Mr Stanhope's figures in terms of what they say they will do with this $27 million. I might as well mention that now because it really is quite edifying. They make mistake number one when they say, "Right, $27 million over three or four years. We can do lots of things there." They list a plethora of things. They seem to neglect the fact that $7.98 million is capital for the purchase of additional buses.

Mr Berry: Yes, we are taking that out too.

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