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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Tuesday, 30 March 2004) . . Page.. 1344 ..

amendment 5 about transparency in terms of the application process to establish a non-government school. Both are important.

Proposed new clause 97A agreed to.

Clauses 98 to 102, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Clause 103.

MS DUNDAS (8.42): Mr Speaker, I move amendment No 5 circulated in my name [see schedule 2 at page 1375]. At the end of the in-detail stage I will move a similar amendment in respect of government schools, if the Assembly is willing to re-commit clause 36. I think it is important that this amendment be applied to both the government and non-government school sectors.

Under the bill that is before us, students who are to be excluded from school have to be given the opportunity to attend counselling. My amendment extends this to students who have been suspended for more than, and not necessarily consecutively, seven days of a term. The intention is to help students in the preventative stage so as to prevent them from reaching a level where they are in danger of being excluded.

I believe we must take every opportunity we can to make sure students are able to stay in school and participate in educational programs. There is great benefit in making sure that counselling is started early when there is a warning sign that maybe something is going wrong, as opposed to waiting until a student is excluded altogether.

I hope that the Assembly can see the merit of these amendments. I think they will provide a lot of support to parents who have raised a number of concerns about the legislation. Continual suspension is a general flag fall that other issues and problems need to be addressed. It would be better to provide early help rather than reach the point where a student is no longer welcome in the school community.

Mr Cornwell: Could I ask for your guidance, Mr Speaker, please?

MR SPEAKER: Yes.

Mr Cornwell: Ms Dundas in her statement said this was an amendment that had been moved for the government sector.

MS DUNDAS: No.

Mr Cornwell: I was not aware that this had been moved in respect of the government sector.

MS DUNDAS: Mr Speaker, can I clarify the situation. I believe that perhaps the member misheard me.

MR SPEAKER: I hope so. Help me.

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