Page 2797 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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having to ride this storm. You are being very generous. It is now five minutes to three in the morning and here we are still trying to push the point. Yes, we will keep pushing the point because you are very embarrassed. That smile says it all. It is all about economic rationalism; it is all about selling off. “Let us close the schools, let us flog the land, let us just get some money back into the coffers because I have managed this territory’s finances so badly.”
Even though the government supposedly welcomed advice post its budget, it was and is now largely ignored. You just do not want to hear the advice. So you have got this sort of veneer out there going, “Well, we need to hear from you. You have got until such and such a date.
Mr Barr: 6 December.
MRS BURKE: What date was it again?
Mr Barr: Consultation ends on 6 December.
MRS BURKE: 6 September; that is quite near Christmas, isn’t? Oh dear!
Mr Barr: December, December!
MRS BURKE: Yes indeed; 6 December, quite near Christmas. So you are going to take that advice and in a week or two weeks you are going to make a decision. Or will it be made on Christmas Eve? What a nice Christmas present for people. Anyway, you are going to take that advice, but of course by then you will already really know what schools you are going to close. But do the parents know? No.
I take your point: maybe some of the children with a disability might know because you have assured me that you are forming plans for those children, new schools for those children. You are nodding your head there; so all 1,720-odd children that are attached to schools, that have a disability, you have got a plan for and they will all be fine before next year. Is that a yes?
Mr Barr: It is 28 students, actually.
MRS BURKE: Perhaps you can give me a more detailed briefing on that?
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mrs Burke, if you could direct your comments through me, the interjections might not occur as often as they possibly are. Thank you.
MRS BURKE: Yes, thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The government seems to have lost all concept of issues like equity and quality provision of education. Mr Deputy Speaker, I think it is extremely disappointing that whatever we say on this side of the house it just falls on deaf ears anyway. The arrogance is audible from here. The arrogance and the smirking and the whole embarrassment, actually—
Mr Stanhope: Audible? What does audible arrogance sound like?
MRS BURKE: Well, you look at it—
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