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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Tuesday, 30 March 2004) . . Page.. 1335 ..

government schools. I am of the view that school responsibilities in regard to young people and the law are well understood and that to bring in any more mandatory reporting, particularly without detailed consultation, would be unhelpful and destructive. I echo the comments of the minister on this.

MS DUNDAS (8.07): The Democrats will not be supporting this amendment either. There is a responsibility on all citizens in our community to report any situation where the law is being broken. To impose this on the education department in an education bill is quite onerous. It takes away the discretion of principals to deal with minor matters, as the minister has already said, and there could be occasions when heavy-handed involvement and referring a matter to the police could be detrimental and not the best solution for the students involved. We should not take away that discretion and we should not prescribe this in legislation.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the opposition) (8.07): I rise just to correct the minister. The minister has stated tonight that none of this applies to the non-government sector.

Ms Gallagher: Well, it doesn’t.

MR SMYTH: She is wrong. Mr Pratt assures me—I have just checked with him—that all these amendments apply to both the government and the non-government sectors.

Ms Gallagher: They do not. He has just simply given you bad advice, Mr Smyth, so sit down.

MR SMYTH: Ms Gallagher can interject if she wants. Mr Pratt can get up and speak for himself; but all night I have heard Ms Gallagher trying to create the image that we are trying to divide the sectors when we are not. We are the ones who accept that as minister for education you should be the minister for all students. You are the one who says that you are the minister for government schools—and you are not. What you are doing is abrogating your responsibility by not accepting that you are responsible for all school students equally. What you are doing here is putting up a falsehood. Mr Pratt says that these amendments apply to all of the jurisdiction, to both the government and non-government sectors. Mr Pratt can get up and explain this for himself; he is well able to do so. Since this debate has started you have perpetuated this myth that the provision does not apply to both sectors. All of these amendments apply to the non-government sector as well.

MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education, Youth and Family Services, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (8.09): I have sought to resist replying to some of the things that have been said by the Leader of the Opposition. But he is simply incorrect. The part of the bill we are dealing with at the moment relates to government schools—we have not yet reached non-government schools—and the amendment that Mr Pratt has moved to this section of the bill is not the same amendment that he will be moving to the non-government school section of the bill.

He has said tonight that the amendment that he seeks to make to government schools will over time flow into the non-government sector at a later date. I have already questioned that comment. He has an opportunity now to move in the non-government section the amendment he has moved in the government section, and he has chosen not to.

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