Page 2544 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007
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mechanisms where they can still have their evidence tested in court, but without some of the very difficult circumstances that they face when they often have to give evidence in front of the person who is alleged to have committed the crime. Facing their alleged attacker in court can be a very difficult and emotive experience and it needs to be managed sensitively and appropriately. These are all reforms the government will continue to progress. In the interests of time, I will conclude my comments on the justice portfolio and simply commend the appropriation to the Assembly.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure—Part 1.16—Department of Education and Training, $415,668,000 (net cost of outputs), $98,364,000 (capital injection) and $174,413,000 (payments on behalf of the territory), totalling $688,445,000.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (11.30): This is one of the most important items of appropriation in the budget because it is about the future of our children, about investment in our human capital and about investment in our future. The Chief Minister moans that we have a narrow tax base and all that sort of thing. The other day he was making light of the fact that our diamond mines were not producing and that our only real agricultural export is from the chook farm. Tonight we do not see a commitment to investing in our children’s future because this debate is going to be truncated in half an hour.
We see a modest number of initiatives in the budget. In comparison to last year’s budget, which was a slash and burn budget, I suppose any injection of capital should be welcomed. There is the election commitment that the Stanhope government made before the last election of providing a million dollars to non-government schools to allow them to make minor adjustments to increase access for students with disabilities. The Stanhope government would not give any more than that because they had already attempted to buy the silence of the non-government school community with this commitment at the last election. But it stands in stark contrast to some of the capital works upgrades in other parts of the school sector.
I draw members’ attention to the support of $1.3 million for the disabled as part of the program to progressively improve access for disabled students, staff and visitors. There is work being undertaken at selected schools. This year the $1.3 million will be for the replacement of a lift at Lyneham high school and a new lift to be installed at Black Mountain school. It goes to show that the $1 million set aside for ACT non-government schools is not going to go very far when, for the princely sum of $1.3 million, we get two lifts. There is going to be very little money when it has been sorted out amongst all the non-government schools. Perhaps we will get a bit of resurfacing on the odd ramp, but there will certainly be no lifts. There might be a few rails, but some of the other facilities that some of the schools are crying out for will not be available through this less than generous contribution.
Although I am pleased to see the extension of the bursary system, I am still concerned that the $500 per year is fairly modest and has not been increased for a number of years. In the light of the new-found budget revenues, we might see a reconsideration of that amount. I would like to see more than $500 a year for the people who are
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