Page 3542 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 September 2005

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that you got a knock back when we said, “Do you want to sign a petition about Ginninderra district high school?” People queued up to do it. That is one barometer; it may not be particularly accurate; but it was by far and away the easiest collection of signatures on a petition that I have ever encountered.

There was a diversion in the Chief Minister’s speech about critical literacy. Seeing that the Speaker has ruled that it is relevant, I will touch on it lightly. The Chief Minister said I was the only person in this country, virtually, who was critical of the critical literacy in the curriculum. Off the top of my head, and it is not a exhaustive list, the Queensland minister for education, Rod Welford—I think he is a member of the Labor Party; he was last time I looked; he was previously the Labor Attorney-General in Queensland—on 2 August made a public statement that critical literacy will be removed from the Queensland curriculum. He made very scathing comments about that.

There has been an ongoing debate in the pages of the major publications, particularly the Australian but also the West Australian and the Hobart Examiner on this very issue. There is a range of articles by Luke Slattery, which draw on a range of academics, whose names escape me at the moment. Dr Andrew Leigh from the ANU has spoken recently about the failures of critical literacy. There is much that could be done, and this is why we should support this motion.

MR SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired.

Question put:

That Mrs Dunne’s motion be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Ayes 7

Noes 8

Mrs Burke

Mr Seselja

Mr Berry

Ms MacDonald

Mrs Dunne

Mr Smyth

Mr Corbell

Ms Porter

Dr Foskey

Mr Stefaniak

Mr Gentleman

Mr Quinlan

Mr Pratt

Mr Hargreaves

Mr Stanhope

Question so resolved in the negative.

Personal explanation

MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra): In the debate just past, Mr Speaker, I took a point of order, which you dealt with. Then you dealt with the matter that arose yesterday. I would like to put on the record, probably more by way of personal confession than personal explanation, that Mr Seselja pointed out to me, after the question was dealt with, that he had asked a more broad-ranging question than I had imagined and that I had made a mistake. In light of what Mr Seselja pointed out and what you pointed out, those points or order were inappropriate. I apologise to you and to members for that.

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