Page 3239 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 October 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MRS DUNNE: Yes, including Charnwood, where people come to me and say, “Thank you, Mrs Dunne, for standing up for our schools.” Three or four people might have got their picture in the paper, but the other people who come up to me week after week and thank me for standing up for their schools do not get their picture in the paper because that is not a departure from the obvious. That is not a controversial story.
The people who thank me and my colleagues for standing up for their schools do not get their picture in the paper, Mr Gentleman. In this case, only the self-confessed members of the Labor Party who wanted to make a fuss got their pictures in the paper and those four people are the only four people who, in two weeks at Charnwood shops and regular visits to schools in the area, have ever said, “We do not like what you are doing.” I am not like Mr Gentlemen and Ms Porter, who say that they will do something and then sit here and do nothing. I challenge them to speak today. I challenge them to say why they would not support—(Time expired.)
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Minister for Industrial Relations) (4.12): I thank Dr Foskey and Mrs Dunne for their contributions. I respectfully disagree with the majority of what they have had to say. I would like to indicate from the outset that the government opposes the motion put forward by Dr Foskey. Our intention is to continue to act in line with all the requirements of the Education Act. We have done so, of course, by publicly placing the Towards 2020 proposal before the community for an extended period of consultation.
I do not think any policy proposal has been subject to more scrutiny, certainly in living memory, in the ACT. There has been a considerable amount of debate in this place, within the media and within the community on this proposal, and today we are seeing another delaying tactic designed to thwart any attempt to make much-needed enhancements to the delivery of education in the ACT.
Mr Speaker, we have seen many such attempts, and one really has to ask why those opposite and the Greens are so opposed to any reform of our education system. Certainly, neither speaker previously has put forward a policy suggestion by way of an alternative proposal. They have been very focused on pursuing the government on matters of process, which is a responsibility of oppositions and crossbenchers, I acknowledge, but it has all been about process rather than substance.
I do acknowledge Mrs Dunne’s contribution and the movement that there has been from the beginning of this debate in relation to whether there is some need for reform. I think that Mrs Dunne has been receiving feedback similar to mine from over 75 school visits and more than 90 individual consultation meetings with school communities that I have been involved in—that is, that people are acknowledging that there is a need for change.
There are obviously in individual communities some very passionate views about the retention of individual schools, but there is broad acceptance on the fundamental issues that this public education system has to confront. The changes in demographics in this city and the drift from public education to the private education system are issues that need to be confronted. They are difficult issues. They are ones that have built up over the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .