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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 7 Hansard (20 June) . . Page.. 2204 ..

It is ironic to see today the opposition defending the move to have smaller class sizes, when their actions were to attempt to increase class sizes during the time it was last in office.

Let me address the wisdom or otherwise of having free school buses. We are told that the majority of students will not benefit from this move. Indeed, I concede that. They will not. But if one were to attack or repudiate an initiative in the government's budget on the basis that it did not benefit the majority of the population, almost all of the budget would fall. There is no doubt that the money we are putting into this budget to reducing dental waiting lists does not benefit the majority of the population. It benefits a very small minority of the population.

The cervical cancer register initiatives do not benefit the majority of the population, because only half the population are women and only a minority of them contract cervical cancer. So the majority does not benefit from that measure. In particular, the programs to benefit Aboriginal people in the ACT-and there are many of those programs in this budget-axiomatically, do not benefit most people in the community. I hope we are not going to hear the argument that those programs should not be supported because they do not benefit most people in the community.

You, Mr Deputy Speaker, have called for activities within schools to be the focus of budget funding. There is a range of ways in which we can assist people to meet the burdens, the costs, of education of their children. If it is true that the Labor Party is exploring in its polling a parents allowance payable to parents not in the context of schools but as parents, without any accountability about how it is actually spent-on education matters or other things-then that argument is a hollow argument indeed.

Ms Tucker says that the argument that free school buses benefit the environment is superficial. Obviously it must come as a surprise to the Conservation Council of the South East Region and Canberra, which issued a press release last month saying that they welcomed the government's budget initiative relating to transport. They said:

Obviously, Ms Tucker does appreciate that distinction that the conservation council appreciates.

Finally, Mr Corbell talked about sixpences not being worth giving to the community. I believe that there are lots of ways of providing support and assistance to the community. I believe that there are 16,000 to 18,000 people already who appreciate that education is not merely about what takes place in classrooms but that education is also about the things that parents do, and that support and assistance to parents, as represented in this budget initiative, are more than a worthy goal, not just in pursuit of education but in pursuit of the needs and interests of the general community of this territory.

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