Page 3557 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 20 November 2007
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Mrs Dunne: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I think the original question was about Indigenous health and I therefore think that is out of order.
MS MacDONALD: Mr Speaker, on the point of order: I started by talking about Indigenous education as well as drug rehabilitation issues.
Mrs Dunne: Mr Speaker, the preamble may have been about this, but the question was about health and therefore the supplementary question has to be about Indigenous health.
MR SPEAKER: But, as Ms MacDonald has explained, she did refer to education matters so I am prepared to allow the supplementary question.
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. As we all know, if there is a single area of human opportunity that has the capacity to—
Mr Barr: The shadow education minister is not interested in Indigenous education.
Mrs Dunne: No, the member for Ginninderra wants the government whip to get the questions right.
MR STANHOPE: No. This would be another example, in the words of Mrs Dunne, of throwing good money after bad—the mantra of the shadow minister for education and the Liberal Party. Even in relation to Indigenous education the Liberal Party, through their spokesperson, actually consider this, as they do with all support for public education, as throwing good money after bad.
MR SPEAKER: Come back to the subject matter of the supplementary question, please, Chief Minister.
MR STANHOPE: It is important that we acknowledge that the greatest single opportunity that we have as a community to engender a capacity to change life is through access to quality education, and that of course goes for all of us, but most specifically for Indigenous students. We do care a lot about Indigenous education, unlike the shadow minister for education, Mrs Dunne, who believes that any funding for public education, including education for Indigenous students, is throwing good money after bad. We do know what Mrs Dunne thinks about public education. Most specifically we know what Mrs Dunne and the Liberals think about any support for Indigenous Canberrans and Australians.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Come back to the subject matter of the question, please, Chief Minister.
MR STANHOPE: The government has focused closely on issues around addressing disadvantage through access to a public education system that is unparalleled, that leads the nation and in relation to which we are prepared to continually invest. We are investing; we are investing in public education across the board at levels unheralded in the ACT’s school history and most particularly since self-government. That is why
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