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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 3 Hansard (5 March) . . Page.. 559 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Secondly, Mr Speaker, and I guess more generally, the provision of information in a pluralistic and democratic society is one that I don't have a problem with. Indeed, I welcome the fact that young people are engaging in the political process. I certainly don't share all of the views of organisations like Resistance.

That, Mr Speaker, is really beside the point. The point is: are we going to have an environment in which we can foster young people engaging in the political process? If young people choose to engage in the political process in this way, then I welcome that. I welcome the spirit of thinking that comes with that.

I would be interested if Mr Cornwell could advise whether, if fact, it was a student that was distributing this information. If it were a student distributing this information, Mr Speaker-and, again, that is fairly unclear-then I think it says a lot about the health of the body politic that young people are prepared to engage in political processes from a young age.

MR CORNWELL: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. I thank the minister for his response. Minister, in view of your response-and I can confirm that they were on school grounds during school times-in terms, therefore, of political consistency, will you allow groups like One Nation and the National Front to also appear on school grounds, handing out their literature, with the inevitable risk of violence in the playgrounds between the groups that clash? Obviously, Resistance is not exactly going to be all that happy, I would think, or even friendly with the National Front.

Do you believe that this is acceptable behaviour in the education-

MR SPEAKER: Mr Cornwell, I think you are stretching it a bit on a supplementary question.

MR CORNWELL: Au contraire, Mr Speaker. I am simply asking a supplementary question. Do you believe that it is acceptable that you should have political groups clashing in school playgrounds?

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, it is a hypothetical question, because I am not aware of any instances of political conflict in our school grounds. I am not aware of students manning the barricades in school grounds. I am not aware of political militias being formed in school grounds to fight out ideological battles over recess. I am really not aware of any of the instances that Mr Cornwell raises. So in that respect his question is hypothetical.

Mr Speaker, the issue is-and I think it needs to be clarified: was it a student that was handing out this information or was it people who were in some way associated with the school? These are issues that need to be clarified.

Mr Speaker, I am quite open to information being made available to students about the political process and about different streams of political thought, as long as they are consistent with the accepted parameters of democratic thinking in this country; that is, they do not promote violence, they do not promote philosophies that undermine democratic institutions of the nation, or, indeed, are illegal. I do not have a problem with that information being made available.

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