Page 2796 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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probably one of the more horrendous types of moves because of the whole disassociation thing surrounding autism and Asperger’s syndrome.
What about the staff? There will be staff cuts. We have a letter that we have all read and seen from the council. That is rather disappointing. The council feels totally irrelevant. This is the government’s own council. They tried to give you advice from the start and now they feel totally irrelevant. Where does it leave them in the future in an absolute majority government when councils are set up? Are you just going to continue to totally ignore advice from anybody? It seems like it. It is pointless for anybody to seek to give you any advice. What is the point? How glibly you ask for people’s advice and how glibly you just toss it to one side.
Mr Stanhope: What do you think of the Lockhart review?
MRS BURKE: I come back to the staff. You can have your say in a moment, Chief Minister.
Mr Stanhope: What do you think of the Lockhart report?
MRS BURKE: You can have a say in a moment. What about the staff? First, we are going to look at staff cuts. It is rather ironic, isn’t it? We have a select committee here set up under the most farcical conditions, I have to say. We have an absolute pretence about WorkChoices in the ACT and how the federal government’s legislation will affect working families.
Yet we have a government that is going to slash and burn its own work force. I did see Mr Gentleman nodding then; so that is good. He is obviously concerned about it and I hope you lobby the education minister and the Chief Minister. What is going to happen to those staff? Are we going to lose the good expertise? Let us face it: what age group are most teachers in? They are 40s upwards. The median age of a teacher is 42 to 45?
We are going to lose all the good corporate knowledge and expertise. It is going to walk out of the door because they will just give up. They will say, “I do not need this; at my age, I really do not need this. I will leave the system and go.” That is good, isn’t it? We have a situation where we are pushing and flogging the federal government at one level. But what is your answer at the local level? What is your answer, Chief Minister? What is your answer, Mr Gentleman? If those teachers do stay in the schools, maybe they are going to be called upon to undertake tasks that they are not skilled to do. I hope the education minister has a whole plan to upskill teachers who will need to be upskilled to be able to deal with students with a disability.
This action by the Stanhope government has nothing to do with good educational outcomes, does it Chief Minister? It has everything to do with economic rationalism. You need money. You need to have money; you really are so hard-faced now about this you are pushing through—
Mr Stanhope: Bill, did you clear this speech?
MRS BURKE: You will not distract me from saying what I am trying to say; so you can keep on interjecting all you want, Chief Minister. It is so embarrassing for you. You are
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