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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2988 ..

I want to talk about school canteens, which are relative to health. I asked the minister during the estimates hearings what the government’s position was on the issue of healthy school canteens. She replied that the government was still negotiating and discussing the issue with P&Cs. That is not really good. I would have thought that, if people who know something about school and child health issues are saying that this is an issue that must be addressed, the department, with the government behind it, would be putting down some fairly clear strategies. The observation I have made from the estimates program is that the government will still be negotiating with P&Cs to encourage them to change the food content in school canteens.

Why can’t the minister and the department give direction to all schools that there will be an ACT benchmark for what canteens should stock? They could simply give the instruction: “The following food and drinks will be allowed.” I do not buy the argument that I have heard too many times now through the estimates hearings program that P&C profits raised from canteens for schools aid might suffer. That is understandable, but I would have thought that, once canteens are given a clear direction and a benchmark that they can only stock certain food, they would survive.

MR SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired.

MR PRATT: I seek to speak for some of my second 10 minutes, please.

MR SPEAKER: On the question that the expenditure be agreed to.

MR PRATT: This is a situation where the department, with the government behind it, should be laying down clear benchmarks and saying to P&Cs, “I am sorry, guys, you have got three months to adapt. You have to get over the Cherry Ripe profit and see if you can turn it into a broccoli sandwich profit.” This is so important as we have an obesity problem. That will not stop kids from going to Erindale takeaway shop on the way home—of course it won’t. In their own time they will still go and by scallops and chips. If the school canteen is stocked with fruit juices, healthy sandwiches, fruit, muesli bars and the like during school hours, during that time frame, our children’s exposure to eating unhealthy food will be minimised.

I turn now to non-government school funding and the lack of assistance in the budget and now the appropriations. Let us have a look at ICT. Funding for ICT is just abysmal. ICT programs are so paltry as to be nothing but token gestures. But even worse than that is the provision of funding for children with difficulties, children with special needs. On my calculations, the amount of money that has been made available for children with special needs is a lousy $214 a head per year. That is quite sad. Some non-government schools certainly have not pulled their weight in trying to retain children with special needs—there is no question about that. The government is right to encourage them to pick up their responsibility.

It does not help when the amount of funding that is being made available to the non-government sector has not even addressed the issue. If we are going to encourage these schools to take on their responsibility and shoulder their fair share, we need to make sure that they get some decent funding. That is a major concern. I do not know what the

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