Page 3458 - Week 11 - Thursday, 15 November 2007
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education as an important part of this country’s future rather than something that must be funded under sufferance, which is the position of the Liberal Party.
We look forward to a constructive engagement with the commonwealth government in relation to the next quadrennial funding agreement. It would be my objective to see resources for all schools in the ACT increased as a result of those negotiations and to see the ACT government be able to make additional appropriations in the years ahead.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, how confident can people in the ACT community be that the Stanhope government will not continue the approach most recently espoused by Peter Garrett of promising one approach before the election with the intention of reversing that approach after the election, which is what you did at the last election in relation to non-government schools?
MR BARR: If you look at the commitments that this government made to deliver to the non-government system in this term of government, you will see that they have been delivered.
Mr Seselja: You said you weren’t going to close any schools, Jon.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Seselja.
Mr Stanhope: $350 million, you’ll never match it. You’ll never match it.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister.
MR BARR: Some $4 million, amounting to $1 million per year indexed into the outyears delivered in the second appropriation bill that the Chief Minister tabled—
Mrs Dunne: And the commitment to revisit the funding has not been—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mrs Dunne.
MR BARR: Mrs Dunne doesn’t like it, but this government has delivered on that commitment. We said that in this term of government we would increase funding to the non-government sector, and we provided $1 million a year of additional assistance in this appropriation bill. On top of that, we have provided financial assistance to the non-government sector to the tune of $380,000 this financial year to ensure that non-government schools are not disadvantaged by the drift to national testing that will occur in May of 2008.
Because the ACT tests occurred only recently in August of this year and the national test will be in May of next year, if the ACT government had not provided $380,000 to the non-government sector, it would have had to have paid twice within the one financial year for testing. The ACT government picks up the tab for all students in all schools for national testing, and not every jurisdiction does that. I was very pleased that the Association of Independent Schools and a range of other non-government school bodies recognised that the government is providing additional assistance to ensure that those schools are not disadvantaged by the move to national testing.
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