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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Tuesday, 30 March 2004) . . Page.. 1338 ..

MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education, Youth and Family Services, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (8.18): The government will not be supporting this amendment. Parents at non-government schools are required to pay fees for their children. It is, therefore, reasonable that they expect the school to be accountable. Also, the issue of accountability is addressed in clause 80, which allows for a higher level of accountability than the proposed amendment and requirements to consult with parents.

MR PRATT (8.19): I am not sure whether this means accountability to the geographic community or to the school’s own support base, so I seek clarification on that. Otherwise, we would certainly like to see conformity in the way that non-government schools relate to their communities and are accountable for their performance. Could Ms Dundas just clarify the issue, please, so that I can make up my mind whether to vote for it or not.

MS DUNDAS (8.19): I am happy to provide that clarification for Mr Pratt. As I said just less than five minutes ago, this amendment moves to strengthen the commitment from non-government schools to be accountable to their school community, whether that is the religious community from which they draw their students or other sectors of the community, the community in which their students are living. I can understand the government’s and Greens’ concerns about not wanting to provide this amendment here but, as I said, it was done in the interests of parity so that the guiding principles for government and non-government schools could be more in line.

Amendment negatived.

Clause 75 agreed to.

Clause 76 agreed to.

Proposed new clause 76A.

MR PRATT (8.21): I move amendment No 17 circulated in my name to insert a new clause 76A [see schedule 3 at page 1376]. This amendment allows the minister for education to provide financial or other assistance to children attending non-government schools. The financial assistance proposed by way of per capita grants is for 25 per cent of the average per capita cost to the ACT government of educating children in government schools. This is not a new concept and I appeal to colleague MLAs to seriously consider this proposal. This principle is enshrined in the New South Wales Education Act 1990, and the wording is similar to the wording in that act and has the same intention. Our amendment drives the need for choice and is based on the fact that 38 per cent of ACT children attend non-government schools. I believe the ACT education system can only become richer by encouraging diversity, and this funding principle seeks to achieve that.

MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education, Youth and Family Services, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (8.23): The government will not be supporting this amendment. Funding formulae should not be placed in legislation as they are subject to change by the government of the day in response to a wide range of

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