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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Tuesday, 30 March 2004) . . Page.. 1266 ..

There other issues that need to be considered. A minor issue for some people, but nevertheless an issue that raised a fair bit of interest and possibly angst sometimes, is religious education in government schools. I recall getting notes from some concerned parents saying, “We actually don’t want our kid to be influenced, we don’t want our school to conduct religious education during normal school hours.” Other parents were adamant that they wanted that option.

It was an issue of great concern to a number of parents in our school body, and schools adopted a very different approach. Again in clause 29 that appears to have been codified fairly well from what I can see. There may be some issues that will arise over time. However, it is something that now has been codified in this new act.

I too look forward to seeing what happens in the detail stage. I think there are probably a few parts of this bill that I would not have put forward had I been minister, but there has been huge consultation in relation to the bill. It is going to pass through the Assembly today, and fundamentally it is a needed piece of legislation because it consolidates and changes one very old act and one act that really has been supplanted by events. I think that is very important.

My thanks go out as a member of this Assembly and as a former minister for education to all the various groups, the stakeholders, who put in a lot of work on this legislation. I know the longstanding departmental officials who are sitting here today—possibly not so much the new acting CEO of education, who has only been there a short time, but no doubt he has done a fair bit in relation to this in recent months—have put in a lot of work over many years.

Jerry Cullen, who raises his head over there, is certainly one of them. Many people in the department have done a huge amount of work over many years, as have persons in the non-government sector. A huge amount of effort has been made by school boards, P&Cs and others in relation to this piece of legislation.

I look forward with interest to see how it will all pan out. I indicate to the minister that any bill, of course, is a living document. It needs to change with the times. This legislation is the result of a need to change with the times and a need to consolidate two old acts. I look forward to the debate at the detail stage.

MS DUNDAS (12.10): I rise on behalf of the ACT Democrats to lend our support to the work being done on the Education Bill today and to the core of the proposal before us, which is to overhaul the education laws in the ACT. This is quite a radical overhaul as we join South Australia in being the only jurisdictions that combine all of their schools education legislation in one place. We will have easily accessible, in one law, the rights and responsibilities for students, parents and schools.

We also enshrine in law a commitment to every child receiving a higher quality education, a commitment to innovation and to diversity in education. In the one place we have the requirements for government schools, non-government schools and home education, and for the first time home educators are being properly regulated. They will have to be registered and demonstrate that they meet the minimum requirements for addressing their children’s educational needs.

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