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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4159 ..

the ACT community in January 2003 when the ACT burned. Further, I condemn the government for eroding business confidence through divisive IR policy and I generally condemn the government for failing to properly manage the very sensitive multicultural portfolio, an issue on which I condemn the minister, Mr Stanhope, personally.

Let us look at education first. One of the community’s most important functions is the education, nurturing and raising of our youth. Surely, that is just about the most important function for which a government, along with families, has a responsibility. Today, I had the opportunity to support warmly Ms MacDonald’s motion commending our schools for pleasing results concerning literacy and numeracy skills. I have often referred to the dedication of our schools, teachers and school boards, both government and non-government, and I have often stated that we have one of the best education systems in the country. The record will show that.

I am quite proud of our schools and I lament the fact that this government has failed to take advantage of the many opportunities it has had over the past three years to add value to our school system and stop the deterioration of some of the standards in our education system, the sort of challenge facing all jurisdictions across the country.

Whilst I will celebrate many achievements and many practices I see in our schools in both the government and the non-government sectors, I will continue to be very critical of this government for not taking advantage of the many opportunities available to help our schools to develop further. I condemn the government for its failure to take our education system to the next plane. Additional funding has been provided, but there has been a failure to closely target that funding and a failure to direct the department to deliver greater productivity for the money spent.

Let me point out now the more specific failures of this government in education. The government has failed to support indigenous students in our education system by developing further some good initiatives that the government had taken. Of the 855 indigenous students enrolled in ACT government schools, 12.7 per cent were suspended in 2003. We need to do a lot more to keep those kids at school and keep them engaged.

The government has failed to promote the government school system in the ACT to boost enrolments, with figures from the government revealing a projected enrolment drop of 5.9 per cent over the next five years. The government has failed to get in there and deal with the weaknesses perceived by our families, particularly in the early high school years, that are causing the drift in the early high school years from the government sector to the non-government sector.

There has been a failure by this government to identify that values education is a major priority for parents, despite national research. For example, I cite the Sydney Morning Herald survey of some 2½ weeks ago that indicated that discipline and values are more important than academic excellence for parents when it comes to choosing schools for their children. That trend has been determined across the country and it applies here as well as in all jurisdictions.

The best primary and second schools in the government sector and the non-government sector have implemented values-based education, but what is put in place and whether it

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