Page 3584 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 25 August 2009
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MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Hargreaves! Mr Hanson has a point of order.
Mr Hanson: Mr Speaker, the minister referred to a survey that was conducted by the previous government prior to the implosion of the hospital. I ask that the minister table that survey by the close of business today.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, that information is available on the web.
MR SPEAKER: Just one minute, Mr Hargreaves. Stop the clock. Mr Hanson, I do not believe the minister was actually quoting from a document. From that point, I do not think there is a requirement for him to table the document that you are seeking. As I understand the conversation, I do not think he quoted from one. Continue, Minister Hargreaves.
MR HARGREAVES: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. What I have relied on in presenting a case has been a series of issues, a series of surveys and a series of incidents. I have not trawled through documents to pull out one that actually suits my case. I put the whole lot down in front of everybody.
This is a typical Brendan Smyth trawling through statistics 101 exercise. You wander through the whole document until you find one thing which supports your argument. I, on the other hand, have put everything available to me in a document and shared it with those members of the opposition.
It needs to be noted that Mrs Dunne would not allow me to have conversations with her colleagues, saying that I had to go through her. I wanted to go and have a conversation with everybody. She said, “You have to talk to me.” The answer is that the document speaks for itself, and they have got access to it.
Schools—government and non-government cooperation
MS PORTER: My question is to the Minister for Education and Training. Can the minister advise the Assembly of steps that the government is taking to encourage collaboration between government and non-government sectors in education in the territory, and in ending the old public-private debate?
MR BARR: Once again, I thank Ms Porter for her interest in education matters. Again, Ms Porter stands out as a beacon in this place as a member who is prepared to ask the important questions on the education portfolio.
I say in response to Ms Porter that Labor is the party of education. Labor is the party that supports public education and non-government education. Labor is the party that is investing more than half a billion dollars to ensure that every school in the ACT is a great school.
As I have said before, as far as this government is concerned, the old public versus private debate in education is over. This government sees the non-government sector as partners in ensuring that every child in the ACT gets the best education possible. A
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