Page 4460 - Week 10 - Thursday, 23 September 2010
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Supplementary answers to questions without notice
Schools—distribution of political material
MR BARR: During question time on Tuesday, and again after question time yesterday, members raised some concerns in relation to protocols around MLAs visiting schools. It would appear that the order of three words is the cause of some concern for members. On Tuesday I said:
I think it is fair to observe that there were a number of breaches of protocol in relation to this particular exercise, not least of which was the attendance of three members of the Assembly without formally advising me as minister for education that they were attending the school.
To clarify matters, if those three words “formally advising me” are changed to “me being formally advised”, that clarifies the situation.
Mrs Dunne interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Have you something to say on this matter, Mrs Dunne?
Mrs Dunne: No.
MR SPEAKER: I will come back to you in a minute; I have not forgotten.
Environment—Cotter Dam
MR CORBELL: Yesterday in question time I took a question from Ms Porter about the Cotter Dam. In my response, I advised that water restrictions had been eased from stage 2 to stage 1. It has been drawn to my attention that this is, of course, incorrect. They were eased from stage 3 to stage 2 on 1 September. I apologise for any confusion.
Childcare—costs
MS BURCH: Earlier today, Mrs Dunne asked me about exemptions. There are 24 exemptions at the moment, across 247 licensed services. There is one on outdoor areas, there are two on group size, but there are, indeed, 21 relating to staffing.
Also earlier, at the beginning of question time, there were a number of things raised in relation to questions about the national quality agenda regulation impact statement. The regulation impact statement, I believe, supports my comments yesterday on the NBN. As noted throughout the report, the absence of sufficient information to rigorously quantify the benefits accruing to the national quality standard and to attribute benefits to a single characteristic of quality means that a large proportion of the benefits cannot be quantifiably included. But we know that, on a quality level, there are significant developmental outcomes for our children.
On the question of the supply response, the statement clearly states that the reforms are assumed not to deviate growth. In fact, it states that, consequently, with the
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