Page 2357 - Week 06 - Friday, 27 June 2008
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Mrs Dunne: I would be sceptical.
Mr Barr: Just be sceptical of them.
MR MULCAHY: Yes, we are all a bit sceptical. I had a bit to do with them some years ago. I was involved with Mount Stromlo Observatory and they gave a fair amount of money. I thought, “There must be quite a few of them.” I was amazed the other night when I went to a meeting, and there are about 160 people from our community who are regular attendees.
Mr Barr: I am somewhat sceptical of that number.
MR MULCAHY: Well, I was sceptical of the number of people that were likely to attend but, in fact, they were very well supported and there were very sensible people there. They raised this with me. They had sent me a copy of the rather dismissive reply sent by the minister. I really think that this is not what we ought to be using. (Second speaking period taken.) I do not think this is really the best use of ACT taxpayer funded facilities.
Dr Foskey: I thought you believed in the market.
MR MULCAHY: Yes, I am happy with the market. Go out and pay for these things, but do not use our respectable education institutions on things of this nature.
Mr Barr: It is not a CIT course.
MR MULCAHY: It is using CIT facilities.
Mr Barr: CIT Solutions.
MR MULCAHY: CIT Solutions. Okay, the trading entity. The issues I have raised here are not issues that can be blown off as a result of funding considerations. These are examples of where the government has simply taken inappropriate decisions or provided reference materials for use in public education facilities which have the potential to undermine the education system.
The material I cited in the first instance regarding the advice being given to youngsters is quite wrong. It is quite mischievous, and I am sure that if anybody on the conservative side of politics were to start putting out propaganda of that nature, the hue and cry you would hear in this town would be extraordinary. Well, I am getting a hue and cry from parents who are saying they do not want their children at the age of seven or eight to be manipulated by any political grouping. We should be providing sensible and objective advice, not that sort of rubbish.
Education, of course, is not about simply throwing more funding at schools. Certainly the investment is welcome and the minister has told us ad infinitum about the level of investment that has occurred during his period as the minister, but infrastructure is not the sole extent of the issues facing the education system in the ACT. Until other items
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