Page 3023 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 17 October 2007
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education minister at the time said to the people of Canberra that there would be no school closures in this term of government.
Mr Gentleman: No, she didn’t.
MR SESELJA: Through a spokesman. Mr Gentleman interjects—but through a spokesman, uncorrected ever.
MR SPEAKER: Never mind the interjections; make your comments through the chair.
MR SESELJA: Uncorrected ever. The minister, through a spokesman, said, “We will not close schools; it is those Liberals who will close schools. Don’t worry. Vote Labor and we won’t close any of your schools.” We saw what a complete lie that was. Eighteen months after the election they turned around and announced plans to close 40 schools, with an eventual decision to close 23 schools. That was one of the great betrayals of the people of the ACT.
When we talk about credibility on education, we have to start with that. We have to start with this promise by the ACT Labor Party, going into the last election, that it would not be closing any schools in this term of government. It turned around and betrayed that promise—betrayed the people of Canberra, betrayed the government education system in this town and turned around 18 months later with a decision for massive school closures and the massive disruption that goes with that.
Those opposite did not even have the decency to put that plan on the table before the election and allow people to decide whether they wanted massive numbers of government schools closed in the ACT. They did not have the decency to do it; they did not have the courage to do it. Everything they say on education and every promise that they make on education in the future need to be seen in that light—in the light of that massive betrayal, that massive fraud that was perpetrated prior to and after the 2004 ACT election.
The opposition acknowledges the need to pay careful attention to the results of this review, particularly to the 14 recommendations. It is worth going through some of those recommendations. Recommendation 1 is:
That the Department of Education and Training develops a strategic agenda for continuous improvement across colleges that incorporates a career and transition framework, with relevant targets and accountability processes.
That recommendation in particular and many other recommendations seem like commonsense recommendations to me. We would expect that many of them would be taken up by this government. You would think that much of this would be there already, particularly in relation to recommendation 1. Recommendation 2 is:
That the Department of Education and Training ensures that colleges are engaged in system-wide initiatives focused on renewal and improvement processes.
That seems sensible. Recommendation 3 is:
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