Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Wednesday, 10 March 2004) . . Page.. 946 ..

over the ability of their children to participate in school activities, which is the reason that the government is prepared to further investigate this matter.

The government will not be supporting the motion as proposed by Ms Dundas but will move two amendments which we believe recognise some of the complexity involved in this issue and represent a commitment on the part of the government to investigate the matter further. I seek leave to move both amendments circulated in my name together.

Leave granted.

MR CORBELL: I move:

(1) paragraph (1)—omit “many”, substitute “some” and insert “could” after the words “students from low income families”; and

(2) paragraph (2)—omit “establish:”, substitute “investigate the need for”.

MS TUCKER (10.53): I will speak to this motion but also move an amendment that I have circulated in my name so that people can speak to both, hopefully. I thank Ros Dundas for introducing this discussion to the Assembly today. The issue of how best to support students and families in need in the education system is very important and it is certainly one that we have raised in this place many times before. In fact, the equity fund that we are now talking about was the result of that conversation occurring some years ago.

It is my understanding that there are many families in public schools in Canberra who are having some problems. I do not know if “many” is the right word, actually; I am not quite sure I can say that, to be fair. I know there are some families who feel that they are having a problem accessing equity funds through their school. But what I do know is that there are generally problems experienced by members of our community with children in the public school system in terms of dealing with the costs incurred in our public education system here, and that is not just about going on excursions; that is about the harassment that some people feel is still occurring regarding so-called voluntary contributions. No, they are not so-called; they are voluntary contributions; they have to be voluntary contributions.

But some parents certainly still feel pressure from the school community as well, not just the school administration but the school community, to pay their fees. A rather unfortunate aspect of this system that we have and which does not always get realised or talked about is the issue of how it can be quite divisive within a school community. While it is the case that for privacy reasons no parent in a public school should have any idea whether another parent pays their school voluntary contributions or subject levies, you certainly get conversations about the fact that some parents are not paying, and they are seen as not pulling their weight in the school community. Condemnation can occur for those parents, which is really unfortunate because there are many parents in Canberra who are struggling to meet basic financial obligations in their lives. The extra costs for the voluntary contribution as well as the subject levies are significant costs for families on low incomes and put real pressure on such families. I know; I experienced it myself when we were on one income as a family. I was at home—I had chosen to be at home—looking after our children and those voluntary contributions, and in later years the

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .