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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2344 ..

MR CORBELL: Dr Nelson called it miserly. He claimed it was the smallest increase in education funding across the nation-even smaller than the Commonwealth's own education budget, he said. That is being damned with faint praise, which is very harsh criticism indeed. The minister claimed that had the ACT matched the Commonwealth's funding for education Canberra's public schools would be $13 million better off. I am pleased to advise members that they are.

Dr Nelson got it wrong. Dr Nelson did not calculate the actual funding increase correctly. The 2002-03 budget papers show an increase in government payment for outputs of $4.5 million, but that is not representative of the actual increase. The actual increase for ACT government schools in this budget is $13.1 million, an increase of 5.4 per cent, far higher than the just over 1 per cent Dr Nelson claimed.

On top of this, the Stanhope government is committing to a capital works program of nearly $36 million, $29 million of which is for the construction of two new schools in Gungahlin-schools which the mob over there delayed for three years and which are now late for the Gungahlin community. They delayed the schools and they cannot even get their maths right.

Mr Pratt: Which this mob allocated $28 million to.

MR CORBELL: Did I hear the shadow minister for education? That would be a first. Funding totals for education are $582.4 million. The increase in funding this financial year is just over $13 million, an increase of 5.4 per cent, not the 1 per cent claimed by Dr Nelson. There are new initiatives, $3.1 million of which, together with capital of $1 million, is for year 3 class reduction transportables. That totals $19.2 million over four years. As well as this, an additional $2.5 million is included each year from next year for future initiatives.

This honours the government's commitment to provide $27 million more over four years than the previous government was prepared to do. They were prepared to squander the money on free school buses rather than investing in education for our city's future.

This government has not cut education funding by one cent for government or non-government schools. In fact, this government is spending more on education in this city than any other government in the history of self-government. That is a commitment made by this party and implemented by this party.

On top of that, funding for ACT non-government schooling is now at $31.2 million, an increase of $1.4 million. This increase includes $0.25 million per year for the Catholic system for IT and indexation of $0.7 million.

I understand that the Canberra Times approached Dr Nelson to generously offer him the opportunity to withdraw his claims in the obvious light that they were wrong. Not surprisingly, he failed to do so.

MS GALLAGHER: Minister, could Dr Nelson's attempt to enter the education debate in the ACT be the result of the poor performance of the local Liberal spokesperson and the Liberals' desperation for someone to manage their education portfolio?

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